NoVa’s GridPoint closed a $75M round. Expect 100 open roles soon

This week, energy tech company GridPoint nabbed one of the largest deals the DMV tech sector has seen in 2022: a $75 million investment round featuring a few power players (pun intended).

Led by Goldman Sachs’ Sustainable Investing Group with participation from Shell Ventures, GridPoint will be earmarking the funds for company growth. GridPoint, based out of Reston, Virginia, is an energy management tech company in the decarbonization space. Its Internet of Things platform connects distributed energy resources, such as solar power, to the overall energy grid with data analytics and machine learning.

The funds will be used to build up the team and add new technological capabilities, CEO Mark Danzenbaker told Technical.ly.

GridPoint’s technology — which is both a SaaS product and hardware on-site, all wrapped up in a subscription model — is intended to help move buildings into increased efficiency and smart cities plans. The software, which operates in the cloud and was completely built in-house, automates energy processing and keeps buildings more connected to the energy grid, or more “grid-interactive.” Specifically, Danzenbaker said, the company works on buildings that are smaller than huge high-rises over 50,000 square feet (although it does have some big-name customers like Chipotle, Walgreens and Wendy’s).

Buildings, Danzenbaker said, are a crucial part of the transition to cleaner energy.

“There’s wind and there’s solar and there’s windmills and there’s electric vehicles and electric charging networks, but one thing you absolutely must do — and it’s one of the ingredients — is you’ve got to tackle buildings,” the CEO said. “That’s where GridPoint comes in, and that’s a big part of what we’re trying to do.”

GridPoint’s software product. (Courtesy photo)

With the investment, the company will also be looking to add to its 115-person-strong team. GridPoint already has 30 open positions on its site, and Danzenbaker expects that number to grow to 100 in the near future. It particularly seeks a number of engineers to add functions and capabilities to the software and other products.

As a whole, the funding points to strong demand for smart buildings with flexible and clean energy, as well as the role tech can play in decarbonization moves. Something of this size, Danzenbaker said, means that there are significant players seeing the opportunity in the clean energy market and hoping to boost sustainable moves. This deal reflects “a recognition of the need to tackle the energy transition, and to create technology in a way to accelerate it,” he said.

Already, this has been a strong quarter for funding in the DMV. GridPoint didn’t top Q1’s top deal so far, the $325 million that NoVa’s Somatus raised, but it’s definitely up there for one of the largest deals this quarter.