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VIA Moves Somerville Headquarters to Accommodate Growing Team

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Pictured above [left to right]: Top – Adam Eisenman, Kate Ravanis, Kevin McSweeney, Steve Patton, Becky McClements, Joe Babiec, and Annvie Nguyen; Bottom – Jackie Finn, Colin Gounden, Kristen Merrill, and Taylor Curran.

 

It’s official: To accommodate rapid team and customer growth, VIA, the leading provider of AI for data privacy, data integration, and data analysis, has moved to a new location in its home base of Somerville, Mass. The VIA team in Somerville, whose size has more than doubled in less than a year, is now headquartered at 49R Day Street. 

The new office will support the expanding commercial team, with new job openings in the energy and government sectors to complement the move. 

“VIA is thrilled to support our growing customer base across sectors — and, from the city where it all started,” said Colin Gounden, President and CEO. 

For a behind-the-scenes look into the new space, follow VIA on LinkedIn or @solvewithvia on Twitter and Instagram.

Pictured above: VIA’s new office space

Pictured below: VIA CEO Colin Gounden welcomes team to Somerville headquarters.

About VIA

VIA is powering the clean energy revolution. Working with the world’s leading power providers, 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. VIA is headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts, with a technology center in Montreal, Quebec, and European offices in Denmark and Switzerland. For more information, please visit www.solvewithvia.com.

Jackie Finn Interviewed for Profile of a Founder Blog

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VIA’s VP of Marketing, Jackie Finn, was featured in The Tech Tribune blog series “Profile of a Founder.” The Tech Tribune recently named VIA “2021 Best Tech Startups in Somerville” for the second consecutive year. Read their Q&A interview to hear Jackie’s advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and discover the turning point that transformed VIA from just a startup data science company to the AI and blockchain leader we are today.

The Startup Pill Names VIA to Best Analytics Companies List

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Thank you to The Startup Pill for including VIA on their list of this year’s Best Predictive Analytics Startups in the U.S. We were proud to be featured alongside cutting edge AI companies across the globe. The Startup Pill selected companies based on innovation (ideas, route to market, product), growth and strategy, management, and societal impact. At VIA, we believe that using AI, we can have a smarter and cleaner future.

Enechange Insight Program Selects VIA For Inaugural Cohort

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VIA is proud to be one of 21 companies selected as part of the inaugural ENECHANGE Insight Ventures (EIV) cohort. Each company selected for the cohort brings unique tools to help Japan achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. According to EIV, companies were selected based on their “technology, size, market traction, timeframe for a prospective collaboration, and subscribers’ interest.” 

Learn more about Enechange and our fellow cohort members on their website.

VIA Strengthens Presence in Western Europe with Swiss Office and Local Advisor

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The AI platform innovator selected intelligent building center of excellence Zug and will expand research work with HSLU

ZUG, Switzerland, June 9, 2021 — VIA, a global trailblazer in AI and privacy-preserving software for the energy industry, today announced it has opened an office in Switzerland, further cementing its role in the acceleration of Switzerland’s clean energy transition goals. The new office, strategically located in the canton of Zug, will support the company’s growth across the European Union, including France, Germany, and Austria. VIA chose the Switzerland Innovation Park Central as it is the preeminent intelligent building innovation hub.

“Switzerland is a global leader in clean energy adoption. The country also carries some of the world’s strictest privacy regulations. Its goal to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is ambitious, and we are excited to be part of making it achievable,” said Kate Ravanis, Chief Operating Officer and Swiss Board Member at VIA. “Our team will play an important role in equipping the Swiss energy sector with the technology to overcome barriers to data and protect privacy, and are excited to bring our patented blockchain application, Trusted Analytics Chain™ to the Crypto Valley.”

To enhance VIA’s operating capabilities, the company named local industry veteran, Andrew Bright, as advisor to the office. In this role, Mr. Bright, who joined VIA’s Advisory Board last year, will draw on his deep knowledge of the region and its unique energy and privacy challenges. He brings 25 years of experience in the sustainable energy and transportation sectors, including 12 years as a senior executive at ABB Power Grids.

VIA will expand its Swiss presence and partnership with Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), focused primarily in the areas of data science, AI, and clean energy technology, and their interaction with the region’s strict data privacy laws. In 2020, VIA and HSLU won funding from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) for its KnowlEDGE project to develop edge computing capabilities on advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), enabling increased data privacy.

Liv Minder, Director Investment Promotion, Switzerland Global Enterprise added, “The clean energy industry has carved out a place in Switzerland, which in turn is providing strong impetus for growth. Given its mission to drive the adoption of clean energy, and leadership in the energy data privacy sector, VIA is warmly welcomed to our business ecosystem.”

VIA, which recently announced a $10M Series A investment round, 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. VIA is headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts, with a technology center in Montreal, Quebec. For more information, please visit www.solvewithvia.com.

BostInno Recognizes VIA as Leader in Boston Area

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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.

BloombergNEF Highlights VIA as Data Procurement for AI Specialist

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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”

Series of Case Studies Taught at Harvard Business School Focus on VIA’s Story

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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 Partners with MIT on U.S. Air Force Contract

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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 

 

VIA Featured as Best Tech Startup in Somerville for Second Consecutive Year by The Tech Tribune

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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.

VIA CEO Colin Gounden Featured as Keynote Speaker at IF Forum in Taiwan

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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 Selected as a Top Blockchain Company in America by Daily Finance

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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 Highlighted as Innovative Partner to Europe’s Largest Utility

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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.

Reversing the Curse: The 80 / 20 Split In AI Projects

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The USAF (a current VIA customer), as referenced in this 2020 congressional report, has prioritized funds to automate analyst workflows to, “directly tackle the challenge of analysts spending 80% of their time searching for data and 20% making sense of the data.” 

Interviews with analysts and our earliest experiences working with customers’ data has confirmed this 80/20 split. We even created a chart in our earliest VIA introductory materials:

To address this common challenge, VIA has been investing heavily in using our own AI and software development skills to reverse this ratio. We may never eliminate data gathering and cleaning tasks, but we can strive to reduce this to 20% of a project and thereby boost the productivity of data scientists. SWEET is the most recent example of how our TAC™ platform accomplishes this. 

We’re keen to hear from you about whether the 80/20 split is still the norm or if you are seeing it decrease (or *gasp* increase). Suggestions on tools or solutions that you would like to see are genuinely welcome.

Transformative Experiences at GDAC™ Virtual Mini-Series Session #2

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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: 

  1. Insights about post-failure analysis of transformers
  2. Value from GDAC™ member gas benchmarks
  3. Business cases supported by the GDAC™ member portal
  4. Future equipment data to include in the GDAC™ program

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.