California-based smart electric panel company Span.io recently announced that it has raised $10.2million in Series A funding round. The funding round was led by ArcTern Ventures.
The round also saw participation from Capricorn Investment Group, Incite Ventures, and a few existing investors.
With the new funds, the company plans to meet the demand and scale its operations across the United States. Further, the company aims to transform the electrical panel into an intelligent gateway for every home and expand the adoption of solar, energy storage, and electric vehicles.
The company is led by executives and lead engineers from Tesla, Amazon Echo, and Sunrun. The company was founded by Arch Padmanabhan Rao in 2018. He was earlier associated with Tesla as Head of Product.
“Self-sufficiency and control within the home are top-of-mind for many homeowners with power outage concerns now compounded by coronavirus shelter-in-place orders,” said Span founder and CEO Arch PadmanabhanRao, who formerly led the product team at Tesla Energy for the Powerwall.
“Last fall, power outages affected millions in California, and shutoffs are starting again as utilities perform precautionary maintenance in fire-risk areas. We developed the Span smart panel to give homeowners greater energy independence in the face of these growing challenges. With Span, they have greater control over their home energy, especially when they need it most,” he added.
The fundraiser also saw participation from Nest co-founder Matt Rogers, who joined the round through Incite Ventures.
Commenting on the recent fund infusion, Matt said, “We founded Nest to reinvent the largest energy user at home, the thermostat. We replaced an ugly household device with something that invited interaction and saved energy. Span has the potential to solve that for every load in the home. That’s why I’ve come on board as an investor to Span and an advisor to Arch.”
Span’s new investors join a strong base of existing investors, including Wireframe Ventures, Congruent Ventures, Ulu Ventures, Energy Foundry, Hardware Club, 1/0 Capital, and Wells Fargo Strategic Capital.
Since launching the product in late 2019, the company has seen significant demand in the residential market from solar plus storage installers, home builders, energy companies, and homeowners.
Managing Partner at ArcTern Ventures Murray McCaig said, “We see an incredible opportunity in the solar-plus-storage market, one that Span is extremely well-positioned to capitalize on. Span combines this opportunity with an exceptional team and a deep understanding of the market.”
Dipender Saluja, Managing Director at Capricorn Investment Group’s Technology Impact Fund and an early investor in Tesla, sees Span’s combination of engineering innovation and consumer focus as a strong parallel.
“We have seen the tremendous impact new hardware technologies can have in transforming incumbent industries. I am excited to partner with Arch to deliver a much-needed revolution to electrical infrastructure and the distributed energy market,” he said.
Existing investors are aligned around a similar drive to help scale the growing solar and storage market. Paul Straub of Wireframe Ventures led Span’s seed round investment and sees Span as a critical next step to advance distributed clean energy.
Talking about the business model, Paul said, “Span seamlessly integrates into the home and helps consumers get the most out of solar and storage,” says Straub. “It will play a central role as more homeowners seek clean energy, flexible backup power, greater resiliency, and easy control of their homes.”
Span has established channel partnerships with solar and storage installers, as well as leading battery storage providers like LG Chem to commercialize the product. Span is focused initially on California and Hawaii as key markets, both states with high rates of solar and battery storage adoption, with plans to expand more broadly in the U.S. this year.
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