demand-response
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Digital Power Optimization, Inc.
Digital Power Optimization (DPO) is a New York-based energy services company that builds and operates 'power-first' flexible data centers at renewable power plants. Its on-site data centers - running bitcoin mining and AI workloads - consume electricity only when it is curtailed, wasted, or undervalued, then curtail during peak demand so power can be sold back to the grid. The model lets hydro, wind, and other generators capture over $100/MWh from otherwise stranded power while helping stabilize the grid.
Emulate Energy
Emulate Energy is a Lund, Sweden cleantech company that builds white-label software turning everyday household devices - EV chargers, heat pumps, home batteries and solar inverters - into a coordinated, grid-ready fleet. Its platform lets utilities, retailers and grid operators connect, control and monetize distributed energy resources: cutting household bills, shaving grid peaks and unlocking flexibility-market revenue without asking customers to change tariffs or behaviour. Founded in 2020 on control-theory research from MIT and Lund University, Emulate runs live programs across Europe and the US.
KiWi New Energy
KiWi New Energy is a Taiwan- and Silicon Valley-based clean energy company building what it calls the operating system for global renewable energy. Rather than manufacturing more solar panels, KiWi focuses on the AI dispatch layer between generation and consumption: its AI-Driven Energy Datacenter (AI-EDC) matches clean supply to multi-site retail and SME demand in real time, aggregating fragmented buyers into virtual demand pools and using blockchain-certified renewable energy certificates to make green power traceable. Its deployments include a rare control-layer integration with Tesla Energy storage for FamilyMart convenience stores in Taiwan, plus customers like Decathlon and Wang Steak. Founded by serial energy entrepreneur Dr. Steve Huang, the company reached breakeven in 2025 and is expanding into Japan and the United States.
Plentify
Plentify is a South African climate-tech company that builds AI-driven hardware and software to intelligently manage home energy use. Its flagship device, HotBot, is a smart controller for electric water heaters (geysers) that shifts heating to when power is cheaper and cleaner, while its SolarBot companion maximizes solar self-consumption. Founded in 2017 by Jon Kornik and Kailas Nair, Plentify links water heaters, batteries and solar inverters into a coordinated energy platform that cuts household electricity costs and eases pressure on strained grids. The company raised a roughly $15M Series A in 2025 to expand from South Africa into the UK, Australia and Brazil.
AGent Energy
AGent Energy (branded AiGent) is a Houston-based energy-tech company that uses AI software and secure hardware to aggregate, orchestrate, and monetize idle backup generators at commercial, industrial, and mission-critical sites. By connecting these behind-the-meter assets to wholesale power markets during peak demand and grid emergencies, AGent turns standby liabilities into dispatchable, revenue-generating distributed power plants - improving grid reliability without building new infrastructure. The company is targeting a roughly 185 GW fleet of existing backup generation across the U.S.
EVmatch
EVmatch is a California-based cleantech company that builds software and services to make electric-vehicle charging affordable, shared, and reservable - especially for the hardest places to electrify, like apartment complexes, condos, and commercial properties. Founded out of a UC Santa Barbara master's thesis, the company began as a peer-to-peer marketplace letting home charger owners rent out their stations and has grown into a full EV charging management platform that pairs reservation software, load management, and rebate-navigation services so property owners can deploy charging without straining budgets.
Revert Technologies
Revert Technologies is a Maine-based climate-tech company that helps businesses cut electricity waste by turning things off. Its plug-and-play smart plugs and surge protectors pair with a cloud AI platform that learns usage patterns and utility prices to automatically manage plug loads, kill phantom power, and report energy and carbon savings. Born at Yale and hardened through the Roux Institute Techstars Accelerator, Revert turns the boring problem of standby power into measurable savings and lower emissions.
GlacierGrid
GlacierGrid (formerly Therma) is a San Francisco climate-tech company whose AI-powered Cooling Intelligence Platform combines IoT sensors, machine learning, and equipment controls to cut energy use, prevent food waste, and reduce carbon emissions across HVAC and refrigeration systems. Its customers include McDonald's, 7-Eleven, Marriott, Domino's, Dutch Bros, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Dunkin', Vail Resorts, and Cornell University.
Recurve
Recurve is a San Francisco / Mill Valley-based climate software company that turns behind-the-meter customer devices - smart thermostats, heat pumps, EV chargers, batteries - into reliable grid resources. Its FLEX platform uses revenue-grade smart-meter data and open-source measurement methods (OpenEEmeter / CalTRACK) to let utilities, regulators and aggregators design, run and verify demand-flexibility programs and pay for performance. In effect, Recurve builds the market plumbing for virtual power plants, so the grid can lean on millions of small homes and businesses instead of a single new gas peaker plant.
ElectronX
ElectronX is a U.S.-regulated electricity derivatives exchange building the financial infrastructure for the energy transition. Founded in 2024 and based in Chicago with a New York office, it offers direct-access, centrally cleared hourly power futures and binary options that let utilities, traders, renewable operators, energy-storage firms and data-center operators hedge the extreme short-term price swings that come with a grid increasingly powered by intermittent wind and solar. ElectronX holds CFTC approvals as both a Designated Contract Market and a Designated Clearing Organization, and has raised more than $55 million from investors including DCVC, Innovation Endeavors, and the venture arms of Shell and Equinor.
Runwise
Runwise is a New York-based smart-building company that retrofits aging heating, cooling, water, and electrical systems with proprietary wireless hardware, sensors, and cloud software. Its platform learns each building's behavior and automatically runs core systems at the minimum needed, cutting fuel use 20-25%, lowering carbon emissions, and helping owners comply with climate laws like NYC's Local Law 97. Used in over 10,000 buildings across the U.S., Runwise has saved customers more than $100 million in energy costs and positions itself as the operating system for buildings still running on 1960s technology.
Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP)
Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP) is an infrastructure developer and holding company that builds and operates businesses reshaping how energy and digital systems work together. Founded inside Alphabet in 2017 and spun out as independent in 2019 by Sidewalk Labs veterans Jonathan Winer and Brian Barlow, SIP raised $400 million in 2020 backed by Alphabet and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. It identifies bottlenecks in physical infrastructure, then pairs technology with capital to create new operating companies - most recently Renew Home, a roughly one-gigawatt residential virtual power plant, and Verrus, which designs large-scale data centers that flex their grid draw on demand.
Texture
Texture is a New York-based climate-tech company building the operating system for the energy grid. Its AI-native software platform connects to any meter, device, or data source - solar arrays, batteries, EVs, AMI and SCADA feeds - and gives electric utilities, cooperatives, virtual power plant operators, and grid-services companies a single place to enroll devices, monitor the distribution system in real time, run demand-response and flexibility programs, and measure performance. Founded in 2023 by Sanjiv Sanghavi (co-founder of ClassPass), Texture aims to break the manufacturer 'walled gardens' that keep distributed energy resources from working together.
Impulse
Impulse Labs makes the world's most powerful induction cooktop - a $6,999 battery-integrated stove that boils a liter of water in under 40 seconds and doubles as backup power for your kitchen. Founded in 2021 by ex-Oculus product architect Sam D'Amico, the San Francisco company wants every appliance in your home to become a grid-friendly battery.
SPAN
SPAN builds smart electrical panels that turn the most ignored box in the house into the control center for solar, batteries, EVs and heat pumps. Founded in 2018 by former Tesla Powerwall lead Arch Rao, the company sells to homeowners through installers and to utilities through its SPAN Edge program for grid-edge load management.
Verdigris
Verdigris is a Mountain View-based AI and IoT company that turns raw electrical data into actionable intelligence for data centers, commercial buildings, and industrial facilities. By clamping high-frequency sensors onto electrical circuits and running proprietary AI algorithms on the resulting waveform data, Verdigris gives facility operators real-time visibility into energy consumption, power quality, and equipment health - detecting failures before they happen, recovering stranded capacity, and driving 20-50% reductions in energy spend. Founded in 2011, the company serves Fortune 500 customers including T-Mobile, Verizon, and NVIDIA across 17 countries.