Leap, a universal distributed energy marketplace, today announced a new capital raise totaling €7.39 million from a combination of equity and debt. The Series A funding round was led by Union Square Ventures, being their first investment in the energy sector. Silicon Valley Bank funded the debt portion of the capital raise.
Leap, founded in 2017, enables real-time automated trading on energy markets. Its Distributed Energy eXchange (DEX) platform grants generation assets and energy resources including battery energy storage, electric vehicles and HVAC systems access to global demand response programmes, renewable energy certificate programmes and real-time pricing through a single API. Leap’s open, hardware-agnostic platform turns the operators of energy resources of any size and type into autonomous smart energy traders, providing revenue to participants while unlocking the benefits of a truly resilient and transactive grid.
Leap is a privately held company with offices in the Netherlands and San Francisco. These new funds will enable the team to grow its presence in Europe and the US, as well as add new members to its team in both locations.
“The world needs more devices and applications that manage energy intelligently, and those devices and apps need Leap’s API to interface with energy markets,” said Nick Grossman, partner at Union Square Ventures. “USV has a long history of investing in online networks, marketplaces, and API platforms, and we believe there is a massive need and opportunity to bring these approaches to bear in the energy sector. We are proud to partner with Leap to bring programmability and flexibility to the grid.”
“We’re thrilled to have Union Square as the lead investor in our new round,” said Thomas Folker, Leap’s co-founder and CEO. “USV is one of the most highly regarded early-stage investors in tech, with an impressive track record of identifying how networks and marketplaces can disrupt entire industries. The electrical grid is undergoing a massive transformation to a grid run on renewable energy. USV’s confidence in Leap speaks volumes to how our marketplace can accelerate this transformation by bringing untapped flexible demand from many thousands of end-customers to help balance the grid.”
In 2019, Leap announced a partnership with Google Nest to allow its residential smart thermostat customers to contribute demand response services to the grid for the first time. Leap was also selected as one of 17 companies in the eighth cohort of clean technology-focused Elemental Excelerator.