VIA is proud to be locally recognized as a leader in the Boston area by BostInno, a Boston-based news site covering “innovation in technology and startups, VC and finance, higher education, and city life.”
With our recent funding milestone, BostInno listed us as one of 15 companies in the Boston area ready to take on exceptional growth. Check out their full article here.
VIA was recently mentioned in a report published by Amanda Ahl at BloombergNEF. The report titled, “Blockchain Opportunities in Power Still Abound,” discusses the total global addressable market for blockchain in the power sector and how it could surpass $100 billion in 2030. Applications for renewable energy certificates, cybersecurity, and AI are among the reasons for this potential growth.
Graphic featured in BloombergNEF article, “Blockchain Opportunities in Power Still Abound”
VIA’s CEO, Colin Gounden, was interviewed by Michael Schoeck of Mergermarket, a financial news and data firm that specializes in M&A intelligence. Colin talks about how our recent funding round will help us expand our reach to power providers, our data security standards, and more.
The article is part of a subscription service offered by Mergermarket.
New Capital Investments Underscore the Platform Company’s Powerful Promise to Accelerate Clean Energy Adoption
SOMERVILLE, Mass., May 11, 2021 — VIA, a global trailblazer in AI and privacy-preserving software for the energy industry, announced today that it closed a $10 million Series A investment, more than doubling its valuation. VIA chose the Westly Group as its lead investor. This round will fuel the company’s next phase of growth, including hiring best-in-industry talent, expanding its customer base (particularly in the U.S. and Western Europe), and continuing to fast-track delivery of its groundbreaking software platform, in support of its clean energy mission.
The Westly Group was joined by a top five Silicon Valley-based enterprise software company, as well as Prefix Capital, a leading deep technology-focused venture capital firm.
“We founded VIA because of the urgent need for AI in the energy space. The grid simply cannot adopt 100% clean technologies without AI. Data access and privacy were always major hurdles – until VIA,” said Colin Gounden, CEO of VIA. “We’re exceptionally pleased to see our traction and results recognized. This investment will help us meet the exponentially growing customer demand for our platform in the power sector.”
VIA partners with governments, regulators, and power providers to deliver billions of dollars in energy every year to more than 100 million customers worldwide. Its current roster of customers includes energy sector leaders such as ConEd, Enel, and Hawaiian Electric. In addition, VIA has an ongoing evaluation with EPRI, a consortium of more than 400 utilities. With two issued patents and more than 12 pending, VIA’s first-of-its-kind, privacy-preserving AI platform, Trusted Analytics Chain™ (TAC™), also meets the highest DevSecOps standards, as evidenced by its fifth selection by the U.S. Department of Defense earlier this year. TAC™ makes AI available everywhere to enable reliable and consistent clean energy on the grid.
“The Series A market today is more competitive than any time in the last 10 years. Companies really need to show significant momentum before closing their Series A,” explained Danny Cotter, partner at the Westly Group. “VIA has proven incredible commercial uptake with its innovative technologies in a traditionally conservative space by partnering with some of the largest power providers in the world.”
“Great founders build great companies that change the world and VIA has followed this path from inception,” added Byron Alsberg, founding partner at Prefix Capital. “This investment is further validation of the strength of VIA’s vision, team, and technology.”
VIA anticipates key hires over the next several months as well as major customer and partner announcements. Follow the latest from VIA by visiting www.solvewithvia.com/latest/ or on social @solvewithvia.
About VIA
VIA is powering the clean energy revolution. Working with the world’s leading utilities, clean energy companies, and government agencies, VIA’s software overcomes the most common barriers to AI: lack of data, data quality issues, and data privacy concerns. As a result, VIA’s software accelerates the AI required for the clean energy transition. VIA also provides the bridge that enables EVs, battery storage, demand response, and distributed energy resources to be on the grid. Headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts, with a technology center in Montreal, Quebec, VIA has been featured in Wired and Inc. Magazine for its leadership in technology innovation. For more information, please visit www.solvewithvia.com.
About The Westly Group
The Westly Group invests in smart energy and mobility and has 15 of the world’s larger energy and auto companies as investors. The firm has over $500M AUM and has had six companies go public including Tesla Motors and Luminar.
About Prefix Capital
Prefix Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups with transformational technologies, which can range from biotech and life sciences to next-generation mobility, energy, wireless, and infrastructure platforms to new computing and AI technologies. Prefix Capital’s investment track record includes large exits and portfolio companies that have gone on to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in follow-on capital.
VIA is excited to share that we are collaborating with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and several of its member utilities on a project that seeks to uncover how AMI (smart meter) data can be better managed while made more accessible. The most notable participating utilities include Consolidated Edison (ConEd), American Electric Power (AEP), Électricité de France (EDF), and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E).
Recent regulations in the European Union as well as several states including California, Illinois, and New York, have mandated more open access to AMI data to support an accelerated clean energy transition. These regulations have created a “tug-of-war” with existing data privacy and security regulations. VIA’s Trusted Analytics Chain™ (TAC™) platform solves this issue.
As part of the project, VIA will configure, deploy, and demonstrate how TAC™ can integrate with an EPRI member’s existing processes to manage data access requests. EPRI will provide its expertise to evaluate how well VIA’s technology meets data privacy test scenarios commonly used when third parties request access to power provider’s meter data. For these tests, a public dataset is being used.
“The power industry is being disrupted in a way not seen for 100 years. The integration of distributed generation, intermittent renewables, and dramatic changes in load from EVs is putting incredible stress on the grid. To see increased adoption of clean energy, we need more data from more power providers accessible to more analysts. TAC™’s ability to make energy data analyzable while complying with the strictest data privacy and security regulations will help pave the way for clean energy solutions across the globe,” said Colin Gounden, CEO of VIA.
About EPRI
The Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI, www.epri.com) conducts research and development relating to the generation, delivery, and use of electricity for the benefit of the public. An independent, nonprofit organization, EPRI brings together its scientists and engineers as well as experts from academia and industry to help address challenges in electricity, including reliability, efficiency, health, safety and the environment. EPRI’s members represent more than 90 percent of the electricity generated and delivered in the United States, and international participation extends to 40 countries. EPRI’s principal offices and laboratories are in Palo Alto, Calif.; Charlotte, N.C.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Lenox, Mass.
About VIA
VIA is powering the clean energy revolution. Working with the world’s leading utilities, clean energy companies, and government agencies, VIA’s software overcomes the most common barriers to AI: lack of data, data quality issues, and data privacy concerns. As a result, VIA’s software accelerates the AI required for the clean energy transition. VIA also provides the bridge that enables EVs, battery storage, demand response, and distributed energy resources to be on the grid. Headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts, with a technology center in Montreal, Quebec, VIA has been featured in Wired and Inc. Magazine for its leadership in technology innovation. For more information, please visit www.solvewithvia.com.
Last year, VIA was approached by Harvard Business School (HBS) professors, Juan Alcacer and Rembrand Koning, to be the focus of a series of HBS case studies to be taught as part of the core curriculum.
The first case covers VIA’s decision to serve power providers as customers versus more obvious sectors like retail and financial services. The cases that follow cover VIA’s firm belief that AI has the ability to transform the historically conservative sector and play an instrumental role in the clean energy revolution.
Juan Alcacer, the James J. Hill Professor of Business Administration at HBS talks about the motivation behind creating and teaching the case studies about VIA, “90% of new companies target the biggest markets like healthcare and financial services, that’s why they are so crowded. VIA was visionary in its choice to work with energy companies first.”
He continued, “HBS is all about strategy and strategy is about making choices. VIA chose to see past prevailing wisdom and take a different path, one we think was bold, and believe others can learn from.”
VIA CEO Colin Gounden and COO Kate Ravanis (who are both co-founders) attended the virtual HBS class where the cases were presented for the first time.
VIA is pleased to announce that they have partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through MIT Innovation Initiative‘s Mission Innovation Program for a contract with the U.S. Air Force (USAF). The contract is part of USAF’s Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program, whose mission, according to their website, is to “support scientific excellence and technological innovation through the investment of Federal research funds in critical American priorities to build a strong national economy.”
VIA and MIT will work together to use VIA’s Trusted Analytics Chain™ (TAC™) software to bridge data from one of USAF’s classified training programs to advanced commercial AI solutions, without comprising data security.
“USAF training programs are rich with data, which AI can analyze, to produce unique insights. As you can imagine, this data is highly sensitive, so making it accessible to AI specialists outside of USAF has been a big challenge,” commented Joe Babiec, VIA’s SVP, Strategic Initiatives.
He continued, “We’re proud to be working alongside MIT to help USAF connect to AI specialists while ensuring the security and privacy of training program data. Combining VIA’s unique technology with MIT’s AI expertise and experience collaborating with the United States Department of Defense (DoD) on confidential initiatives will yield great benefits for USAF.”
“MIT Innovation Initiative is excited to work with VIA on this project with the United States Air Force,” said MIT Innovation Initiative Executive Director, Gene Keselman. “VIA’s innovative new TAC™ software provides secure access to confidential and classified data for analysis. This ability to bring AI to the data can help the USAF tackle many challenging applications.”
This is the fifth time VIA and its TAC™ software have been selected by USAF in the past 18 months, with the most notable contract signed in July 2020.
About VIA
VIA helps governments, regulators, and power providers deliver $200Bn in energy every year to more than 100 million customers. VIA’s privacy-preserving analytics software, Trusted Analytics Chain™ (TAC™) reduces the cost and improves the quality of service of electricity transmission and distribution using AI and blockchain technologies. TAC™ (patents pending) is the bridge that securely connects power company data, distributed across many locations, to potential AI solutions. VIA established the Global Data Asset Collaborative™ (GDAC™), built on top of TAC™, to allow multiple companies to securely pool data for more accurate analytics. Headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts, VIA has been featured in Wired and Inc. Magazine for its leadership in technology innovation. For more information, please visit www.solvewithvia.com.
About MIT Innovation Initiative
Founded at MIT (https://web.mit.edu) in 2013, MIT Innovation Initiative is charged with delivering innovation to the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Ecosystem by identifying problems and creating solutions faster, more effectively, and at scale; and to focus and amplify MIT’s natural strength in innovation in service to the world. The organization is a team of unceasingly inquisitive, data-obsessed problem solvers—academics, business professionals, military, alumni, and community-builders—dedicated to stewarding the innovation process from idea to world-changing impact. Learn more: https://innovation.mit.edu and https://innovation.mit.edu/mission-innovation-program.
Contact:
David Sweeney
Director of Communications
dws1052@mit.edu
For the second year in a row, VIA has been selected by The Tech Tribune as one of the Best Tech Startups in Somerville. According to their website, The Tech Tribune “delivers the latest technology news, in-depth technology articles, exclusive interviews with entrepreneurs, and insights on the hottest technology startups all over the world.”
The list includes ten companies in Somerville that provide solutions ranging from energy storage systems to deep learning models to robotics.
VIA was included on this exclusive list last year and Kate Ravanis, COO and co-founder of VIA, was interviewed for The Tech Tribune’s website. Kate told the story of how VIA got its start, challenges along the way, and gave advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.
For the full article from this year’s list, visit the Tech Tribune website.
Last week, VIA had the honor of participating in the AFWERX Reimagining Energy Showcase. The showcase was attended by thousands of participants from government agencies and companies bringing cutting-edge technologies and solutions to the energy industry.
CEO Colin Gounden was invited to speak on the Energy Data Panel during the event along with representatives from companies participating in the AFWERX Challenge: Data Availability and Improved Planning and Decision Making. The panel touched on topics like how to make unstructured and disparate data sources available while addressing security concerns and how AI can play a role in decision making for the DoD.
In addition to Colin’s panel, VIA hosted a virtual booth during the showcase. The page is open to the public and can be visited here.
As mentioned in a previous press release, VIA is one of 179 companies chosen (out of over 1,000 submissions) to compete in the AFWERX Challenge. VIA’s solution to the Data Availability and Improved Planning and Decision Making Challenge is to use TAC™ to make energy data available for AI and machine learning analysis 100x faster.
For more information on VIA’s solution to this challenge, watch our 5-minute pitch video.
AFWERX, the catalyst for fostering innovation within the U.S. Air Force, announced VIA as one of the 179 participating teams selected from across the globe competing to Reimagining Energy for the DoD.
The AFWERX Challenge is centered around six topics – Fixed and Mobile Energy Generation, Energy Transmission and Distribution, Fixed and Mobile Energy Storage, New Warfighting and Operational Equipment, Data Availability for Improved Planning and Decision Making, and Energy Culture, Policy, and Education. The proposals selected to advance represent innovative solutions to allow for more effective warfighting and humanitarian missions less reliant on fossil fuels.
Located in Somerville, Massachusetts, VIA is competing in the Data Availability for Improved Planning and Decision Making Challenge alongside a diverse group of teams – originating from the vast regions of North America, Europe, Australia and other allied countries – that represent entrepreneurial startups, small businesses, large enterprises, academic institutions and research labs all vying to Reimagine Energy for the Department of Defense.
“The AFWERX Reimagining Energy for the DoD Challenge is critical to our mission of increasing collaboration between large businesses and entrepreneurs to accelerate solutions for the Air Force,” stated Mark Rowland of AFWERX. “On behalf of AFWERX and the Department of Defense, we congratulate the teams advancing to the next phase. Their contributions are invaluable and have the potential to create game-changing results across the Air Force enterprise.”
The Data Availability for Improved Planning and Decision Making Challenge strives to improve our available data and analytics capabilities around the generation, transmission, storage, and use of energy. The Department of Defense (DoD) consumes large amounts of operational and facility energy to provide a combat-credible force. The DoD is one of the largest single consumers of energy globally, and the Air Force is the largest user of fuel energy in the US Government. The way we generate, transmit, store, and use this enormous amount of energy today is both a paramount combat enabler and a potentially crippling vulnerability.
VIA’s solution to the Data Availability for Improved Planning and Decision Making Challenge is to use its platform, Trusted Analytics Chain™ (TAC™) to make energy data available for AI and machine learning analysis 100x faster. TAC™ uses AI and machine learning to clean and harmonize energy data, then connect it to AI predictive models. TAC™ has also supported operational dashboards, visualization tools, benchmarking, and predictive maintenance for energy distribution equipment including transformers and battery storage.
“We’re honored to have been selected by AFWERX to pitch TAC™ and its ability to make data available 100x faster than traditional data science approaches. TAC™ has saved customers hundreds of man hours in analysis and supported tens of millions of dollars in operational decisions. We hope to provide the DoD with that level of value,” said Joe Babiec, Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives at VIA.
To learn more about the Reimagining Energy for the DoD Challenges, click here.
For more information on VIA’s solution to this challenge, watch VIA’s 5-minute pitch video.
ABOUT VIA
VIA helps governments, regulators, and power providers deliver $200Bn in energy every year to more than 100 million customers. VIA’s privacy-preserving analytics software, Trusted Analytics Chain™ (TAC™) reduces the cost and improves the quality of service of electricity transmission and distribution using AI and blockchain technologies. TAC™ (patents pending) is the bridge that securely connects power company data, distributed across many locations, to potential AI solutions. VIA established the Global Data Asset Collaborative™ (GDAC™), built on top of TAC™, to allow multiple companies to securely pool data for more accurate analytics. Headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts, VIA has received an InnovateMass grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and has been featured in Wired and Inc. Magazine for its leadership in technology innovation. For more information, please visit www.solvewithvia.com.
ABOUT AFWERX
Established in 2017, AFWERX is a product of the U.S. Air Force, directly envisioned by former Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson. Her vision of AFWERX — to solve some of the toughest challenges that the Air Force faces through innovation and collaboration amongst our nation’s top subject matter experts. AFWERX serves as a catalyst to unleash new approaches for the warfighter through a growing ecosystem of innovators. AFWERX and the U.S. Air Force are committed to exploring viable solutions and partnerships to further strengthen the Air Force, which could lead to additional prototyping, R&D, and follow-on production contracts.
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AFWERX Media Contacts:
support@afwerxchallenge.com
Marketing@afwerx.af.mil
VIA CEO Colin Gounden gave the keynote presentation at the Evergreen University IF Forum virtual event in Taiwan. The event topic was the transition to clean energy, and more specifically, “The development, boundaries and imagination of privacy technology: Taking the energy transition.”
After the event, the United Daily News, a local press outlet, published an article containing a large amount of content from Colin’s presentation. The article talks in depth about the transition to clean energy in the U.S. and how data privacy and analytics are playing a critical role in making that happen.
For the full article, visit the United Daily News website and for the recording of the event visit IF Forum’s YouTube channel.
Colin Gounden (circled) being introduced during the event.
VIA is proud to share that we have been selected by Daily Finance, “one of the fastest growing online finance, crypto and fintech magazines,” as a top blockchain company in the U.S.
Daily Finance gathered a list of the top startups and established leaders in the blockchain space and how well they have performed in one of the following categories: innovation, growth, management, and societal impact.
To read the full list, check out their article.
VIA’s COO, Kate Ravanis, was featured in two recent videos published on the LinkedIn page of Enel, Europe’s largest utility. Enel created the videos to demonstrate its collaboration with leading companies and its adoption of innovative technologies that accelerate the transition to clean energy.
“We are extremely proud to be selected as one of Enel’s most innovative partners. As a $90Bn a year utility, Enel has a high bar for reliability and a requirement for solutions that scale. We’re excited to be the partner that Enel chose to demonstrate meeting their needs,” commented Ravanis. In the first video, Ravanis talks about the unique partnership VIA has with Enel. Enel posted, “Pushing innovation to the next level: listen to our partners to discover how we are fostering disruptive solutions with our global call, “ReShape” 👉.”
In the second video, Enel commented, “Startups are leading the way towards a successful energy transition. “At VIA, our mission is to accelerate the adoption of clean energy. It’s a double honor for us to be recognized as a leader and also our progress towards achieving our mission,” said Ravanis. Watch this video to discover more about our partners’ sustainable innovations and become part of our global community of solvers.”
VIA is proud to work with energy sector leaders that are focused on the future of clean energy.
About VIA
VIA helps governments, regulators, and power companies deliver $200Bn in energy every year to more than 100 million customers. VIA’s privacy-preserving analytics software, Trusted Analytics Chain™ (TAC™) reduces the cost and improves the quality of service of electricity transmission and distribution using AI and blockchain technologies. TAC™ (11 patents pending) is the bridge that securely connects power company data, distributed across many locations, to potential AI solutions. VIA established the Global Data Asset Collaborative™ (GDAC™), built on top of TAC™, to allow multiple companies to securely pool data for more accurate analytics. Headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts, VIA has received an InnovateMass grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and has been featured in Wired and Inc. Magazine for its leadership in technology innovation. For more information, please visit www.solvewithvia.com.
The transition to reliable clean energy requires utilities to share more data with third parties such as transmission system operators, distributed energy resource providers, EV infrastructure companies, and other utilities.
Just in time for your year end planning, VIA is gathering input for a benchmark report of data analytics initiatives that includes:
Take the survey here to receive your free copy in return.
The survey will take no longer than 5 minutes to complete. Your responses will be kept anonymous. Results will only be shared in aggregate.
VIA had a record attendance of nearly 30 participants at the second installment of its GDAC™ Virtual Mini-Series this week. The session included customers from the US, Asia, and New Zealand and participants located in four different time zones, all eager to share their strategy and asset management experience for substation transformers.
The highlight of the event was the GDAC™ member panel led by Cristiano Marantes, Chief Executive of Ara Ake, an organization that connects technology innovation with energy industry leaders to lower emissions in New Zealand. The panel covered questions related to:
Kate Ravanis, COO, remarked that “it was highly reaffirming to hear that the GDAC™ portal, launched earlier this year, was already being used to save time (one “person month” in one case) to prepare asset management plans and rate case materials.”
This was one of many comments by participants in addition to the engineering and maintenance insights that were shared over the 90-minute session.
VIA is thrilled with the response to the mini-series and will continue hosting member (and potential member) events in the future.
To learn more about the GDAC™ program or to try out the 30-Minute Pilot, visit our website.