Inspire, the Philly and CA-based maker of clean energy tech, will be acquired by Shell

Clean energy tech company Inspire Clean Energy, with offices in Philadelphia and Santa Monica, California, announced Tuesday it will be entering an agreement to be acquired by multinational oil and gas company Shell.

Inspire signed an agreement to become a wholly owned subsidiary of the corporation, the B Corp said in a statement, in order to “rapidly scale its offering of access to sustainable energy to U.S. households.” Financial details were not disclosed.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. Inspire will operate under its own existing brand within Shell’s Renewables & Energy Solutions business, and its leadership team and employee base will remain in place, Shell said.

The 2014-founded Inspire has a base of technologists in its Center City office and is actively hiring. A rep for the company did not immediately respond to Technical.ly’s request for comment on how many employees it currently has in Philly, as well as how many of those employees are tech workers. As of April 2020, 60 of its then-138 employees were local.

Inspire offers renewable energy to customers through services and subscription plans that incentivize customers to manage their energy usage through an app and rewards program. It currently serves about 235,000 residential customers in Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and D.C.

“We share the belief that renewable energy should be accessible to everyone and Shell’s resources, reach and ownership of many aspects of the energy value chain will help us scale and advance our mission,” Inspire CEO Patrick Maloney said in a statement.

The acquisition also advances Shell’s “Powering Progress” strategy established in February, to build and scale renewable, low-carbon businesses with a goal to become a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement.

“This deal instantly expands our business-to-consumer power offerings in key regions in the U.S., and we are well-positioned to build on Inspire’s advanced digital capabilities to allow more households to benefit from renewable and low-carbon energy,” said Elisabeth Brinton, EVP of renewables and energy solutions at Shell.

This editorial article is a part of Tech and the Environment Month of Technical.ly's editorial calendar.