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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”

EPRI Members Testing TAC™ Platform to Manage Smart Meter Data

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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.

 

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.

Let’s TAC™ About It: The Value of TAC™

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For the twelfth installment of our blog series, we will cover how utilities quantify the value of using TAC™. So, are you ready to TAC™ about it?

In our last Let’s TAC™ About It post, we provided a few examples of customer use cases for TAC™.

A follow on question that we often get is, “how do you quantify the value of TAC™ in those use cases?” 

There are multiple ways to approach this, however the most common method is to compare what TAC™ is doing with “the next best alternative.” For most customers, that would be custom building your own data privacy and analysis platform or integrating multiple packages from multiple vendors.

One of VIA’s largest customers considered doing just this. They had evaluated more than 20 vendors and IT integration firms for their needs before we met them. This customer articulated these three big benefits when choosing TAC™ over their next best alternative:

  1. Speed: Because TAC™ has a wide array of built-in features, they could count on being up and running much faster than custom applications. In this instance, other vendors estimated as much as a two year timeframe to build and test an IT platform for their needs. VIA was able to do this in less than four months from the time our contract was signed with them. Even better, within three weeks of using the new platform, they were able to make significant decisions including upgrading $10 million in equipment and planning an equipment replacement, which they estimate will save them $1.2 million per year.
  2. Risk reduction: Custom IT solutions and integration are infamous for delays, budget overruns, and not meeting specifications. Since TAC™ has already been tested and deployment is automated, timelines for future deployment are highly reliable. Prospective TAC™ customers can also see and test features in advance to help make configuration decisions.
  3. Support: Because other customers are already using TAC™, VIA has a strong customer support team and process in place. In addition, upgrades and enhancements are rolled out roughly every month. These upgrades are for all users regardless of their implementation.

Interested in learning more? Write to info@solvewithvia.com for more details on the value of TAC™ for our customers.

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.