News: Gridware Powers Forward with $26.4 Million Series-A Round Led by Sequoia Capital
Gridware announces a successful Series-A funding round, raising $26.4 million, with Sequoia Capital leading the investment, alongside existing backers such as Fifty Years, Lowercarbon, True Ventures, and Convective Capital. This funding will help accelerate Gridware’s mission to transform grid protection and monitoring, enhancing safety and resilience for power utilities.
By Tim Barat, Co-founder & CEO
Today Gridware announced our series-A funding of $26.4 million. We’re proud to have the backing of Sequoia Capital, and a deepened partnership from existing investors: Fifty Years, Lowercarbon, True Ventures, and Convective Capital.
Our story began in 2009, while I was working as a lineman in Australia. During the now infamous Black Saturday bushfires, I witnessed firsthand how the dangers of a vulnerable power grid are exacerbated by a lack of visibility. Gridware was created to tackle this problem head-on.
Over the past four years, we’ve grown rapidly by delivering an innovative and reliable grid monitoring technology to utility providers across America. In doing so, we’ve established a viable business model ready for scale. During the past 12 months, we have achieved 7x revenue growth, and are on track for continued strong growth in 2025. This raise provides additional capital to reach a broader set of utility partners, so we can reshape the future of the electric grid together.
The Critical, Fragile Grid
An engineering marvel, the grid touches our lives in mundane and profound ways, all too easy to take for granted. For more than 100 years, the grid has enabled continuous innovation and our collective advancement. At the same time, it remains astonishingly fragile. When the grid goes down, everything grinds to a halt and our progress stops. The consequences can be dire: wildfires burn, land is destroyed, property is damaged, people suffer, and too often - lives are lost.
In the United States alone, there are more than 5 million miles of power lines, most of that above ground (i.e. at greater risk) and connected by more than 200 million power poles. And, given the sheer scale of this infrastructure, it’s virtually impossible to conduct thorough inspections over such vast distances, raising significant safety concerns for the communities that rely on this essential power supply..
Faced with growing demand for electricity to support our ongoing digital revolution, as well as climate change, power utilities require novel and emerging solutions to drive grid transformation and resilience. New categories of products and services are needed to effectively monitor and manage infrastructure to support a growing and increasingly demanding customer base.
Transforming Grid Protection and Monitoring
Deployed on transmission and distribution poles, our Gridscope devices deliver continuous, real-time grid monitoring - even during outages - by leveraging multi-sensors and on-device analysis. Gridscope units make ordinary power poles self-aware and equip them with the communication tools needed to alert grid operators of hazards and faults when they occur.
Gridscope units also enable improved asset management, including planned predictive maintenance. Our continuous measurements of environmental stressors feed the Gridware analytics suite, helping utilities prepare for, and respond to, the growing number of threats.
Preventing Wildfires and Reducing Outages
With this innovation, utilities can identify and address hazards within minutes instead of hours or days, before they result in lengthy outages or life-threatening disasters.
Now, when storm conditions cause large outages, Gridscope units provide real-time damage assessment so that operators can expedite repairs. This is game-changing for utilities, who were previously “in the dark” regarding where exactly to start their triage. For some of our customers our system has already reduced outage durations by over 70 percent through avoided search time.
One example that truly highlights the critical impact of our solution occurred soon after we installed our devices with a major utility. On one of the hottest days of the year, our technology detected a tree that had fallen onto power lines. Thanks to our timely notification, the utility was able to swiftly address the danger, ultimately averting what could have been a catastrophic wildfire. This incident is one of many and serves as a powerful reminder of the vital role we play in protecting both communities and the environment.
Partnering With Power Utilities
Today, Gridware is trusted by utilities serving millions of customers across North America. Following a successful initial pilot with PG&E last year, the pioneering utility has since expanded to a large-scale deployment covering more than 1,000 miles of power lines and 10,000 poles. From serving this single Fortune 500 utility customer to now supporting 18 major customers across the country, Gridware expects to bring Gridscopes to millions of utility poles in the coming years.
Our complete grid monitoring solution is designed for rapid deployment, seamless integration, and immediate results. The system can be fully operational within weeks of shipment, enabling our partners to act with no disruption to their business."
Come Make a Difference With Us
At Gridware, we are dedicated to developing an intelligent grid that uses sensor technologies and predictive analytics to diagnose faults, anticipate threats, and ensure resilient, reliable, and safe power delivery. To further support our growth and innovation, we are excited to announce our move into San Francisco's only net-zero, state-of-the-art building. This sustainably designed space will allow us to expand our team and foster collaboration. But to reach our ambitious goals and reduce the number of grid-related disasters, we need your help! We are seeking changemakers who are ready to deliver tangible, positive social impact. Whether you enjoy designing hardware, developing software, or enjoying the great outdoors, we probably need your skills! Apply at https://www.gridware.io/careers.