May 19th, 2021 — We started Powerhouse Ventures in 2018 with the conviction that software will catalyze the decarbonization of our energy and mobility systems. As part of this transformation, we made a bet that global corporations across industries would recognize the value of digital technologies that lower the cost of clean energy and mobility, address the climate crisis, and make a significant return while doing so.
Today, we’re proud to announce that SparkCognition has acquired Ensemble Energy, our fund’s sixth portfolio company. Here’s why we’re so excited about Ensemble and their exit.
Rapidly evolving economics have made operations and maintenance even more important for wind and solar.
Plummeting hardware costs have led to an explosion in clean energy deployment, with 260 gigawatts of renewables installed globally in 2020 alone.
While falling costs are a key driver of growth, they also serve to increase competition and decrease margins for developers, owners, and asset managers, resulting in a heightened focus on optimizing asset performance and lifespan.
Every year, an estimated $20B is spent on operations & maintenance (O&M) for wind and solar in the US alone, according to Wood Mackenzie.
Enter Ensemble Energy:
Founded by industry veterans Dr. Sandeep Gupta and Rob Budny, Ensemble Energy has built an asset management and predictive analytics platform for clean energy power plants.
Powered by AI and informed by deep domain expertise in wind and solar, their Energy.ML platform automates asset management processes, provides accurate predictive maintenance alerts, detects anomalies in operation, and optimizes energy production.
Managing customers’ renewable assets in a single platform, Ensemble creates up to $1.5M per GW per year in value for customers.
They’ve already made a splash.
Ensemble monitors over 3.5 GW of wind and solar assets, representing over 4,500 years of operational data.
Their customers include owners and operators like AEP Renewables, EDF Renewables, PIC, RWE Renewable, Sempra, and more.
Meet the acquirer, SparkCognition.
From cybersecurity to manufacturing to energy, SparkCognition is a global leader in AI platforms that enable the world’s most creative problem solvers to ignite lasting impact in their organizations and throughout the world.
By acquiring Ensemble Energy, SparkCognition is making a major entry into the clean energy sector.
This acquisition represents the heightened importance of clean energy to companies outside of our industry—and represents a trend that we expect to accelerate as more technology companies realize the importance and profitability of clean energy and mobility.
Congratulations to Sandeep, Rob, and the entire Ensemble team on this significant achievement. This is a major step for Ensemble, a big first for Powerhouse Ventures, and a promising indicator for software startups changing the way we power our world.
Read more details on the announcement here.
To read more about Powerhouse Ventures’ other publicly-announced investments, visit our Insights page.