A Pittsburgh smart-grid company survived the collapse of its original broadband thesis by learning to control the least glamorous machines on the grid. Its reward: a utility software business built around farm pumps, real-time measurement and a newly acquired second act inside CLEAResult.

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.