Leap Secures $33.5 Million to Scale Its Next-Gen Energy Market Access Platform

October 13, 2021 at 08:00 AM EDT

Park West Asset Management leads the investment in Leap’s next-generation approach to grid services

Leap, the leading energy market access provider, today announced that it has secured a new capital raise totaling $33.5 million from a combination of equity and debt. The Series B funding is led by Park West Asset Management, a Northern California-based investment management firm, with participation from Climate Capital, My Climate Journey, and David Helgason, Founder and ex-CEO of Unity Technologies, along with existing investors Union Square Ventures, Congruent Ventures, and National Grid Partners. Silicon Valley Bank funded the debt portion of the capital raise. Leap will leverage this capital to scale and develop its platform to meet the growing demand for market-driven grid services in markets across North America and beyond.

“As the grid transitions to renewable energy and incorporates more smart devices, flexible capacity is essential to balance power grids. Leap has grown 13-fold in load under management over the last two years and, in combination with our partners, our network has already replaced the equivalent of two gas peaker plants. With this new investment, we will continue to expand into new markets and enable our partners and their customers to realize the full value of their technologies in our mission to decarbonize the world’s electric grids,” said Leap Co-Founder and CEO Thomas Folker.

Instead of the previous generation of demand response (DR), where households and businesses responded to requests from utilities in exchange for set rewards, Leap has launched a dynamic, market-driven approach to grid services. Leap makes it easy for smart devices to respond to market pricing signals representing the real-time needs of the electrical grid, reflecting factors such as location and demand, while also unlocking new revenue streams. Leap’s focus on cloud-connected and automated technologies means that end-customers can participate without taking any action themselves, bringing new loads and customers into the market.

“The pressure to leverage Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) to bolster grid resiliency is amplified by the increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events. Leap’s software solution effectively integrates DERs into energy markets to not only provide value back to the grid when it is needed most, but also enable new revenue streams — a win-win for grid operators, service and technology providers, and the environment alike,” said Tony Bartsh, Portfolio Manager at Park West.

Leap has already delivered significant value back to the grid. During the June heat wave in California, Leap dispatched energy from more than 10,000 commercial and residential sites representing over 375 MWh of electricity to help support the grid and avoid blackouts. Overall, Leap currently has 215 MW under management and more than 20,000 participants on the platform, and dozens of strategic partners including Stem, Inc. and Sunrun. Leap’s partnerships are not limited by load type, as partners can use Leap’s API for any smart device— such as smart thermostats, residential and commercial batteries, electric vehicle chargers, and more.

“Leap’s platform represents a step function change in how connected devices can participate in grid services,” said Nick Grossman, partner at Union Square Ventures. “While Leap’s Series A financing was USV’s first investment in the energy sector, our long history of investing in networked infrastructure and API platforms made it easy for us to recognize Leap’s potential. Our continued investment in Leap reflects our confidence in the role it will play in this sector’s growth.”

About Leap

Leap is the leading global platform for generating new value from grid-connected resources and devices through integration with energy markets. Leap does all of the heavy lifting, seamlessly connecting technology partners to high-value revenue streams and providing a simplified, automated access point for market participation with batteries, electric vehicle charging, smart thermostats, HVAC systems, industrial facilities, and other flexible assets. By making it easy for new distributed resources to participate in energy markets, Leap lays the groundwork for virtual power plants (VPP). Leap empowers its partners to provide resilient, zero-carbon capacity to the grid while strengthening engagement with their customers through new value streams. Leap is a privately held company with offices in San Francisco and the Netherlands.

About Park West Asset Management

Founded in 2003, Park West Asset Management is an investment management company based in Northern California. The firm invests across asset classes and across maturity stages, spanning early-stage and late-stage private companies and public companies.

About Union Square Ventures

Union Square Ventures is a thesis driven venture capital firm based in New York City. USV’s current thesis is focused on products and services that leverage networks to broaden access to capital, knowledge and wellbeing. The portfolio includes Twitter, Etsy, Twilio, MongoDB, Coinbase, Carta, and Stripe, among others.

About Congruent

Congruent Ventures is a leading early stage venture firm focused on partnering with entrepreneurs to build companies addressing climate and sustainability challenges across four themes: Mobility and Urbanization, the Energy Transition, Food and Agriculture, and Sustainable Production and Consumption. The firm has over 40 companies across two early stage climate tech funds and is amongst the most active in the climate tech venture market.