Australia's CEFC, Southern Cross Venture back GreenSync

Each investor contributed A$5 million with the remainder coming from an unnamed private fund. The company, which has received more than A$500,000 in grants from the likes of the Victoria state government’s New Energy Jobs Fund, has raised more than A$13 million to date.

GreenSync operates distributed energy platforms that facilitate transactions and coordinate dispatch between utilities, system operators, and owners of distributed energy resources. Clients include energy companies, supermarket chains, manufacturers, airports, resorts and universities. The system integrates weather data, production schedules and information from networks and markets around the world to predict forthcoming constraints in order to minimize energy costs.

The company envisages a smart grid that integrates even greater use of renewable energy, as well as electric vehicles and battery storage options, giving people more control over their energy consumption.

“The CEFC’s investment in GreenSync will assist the transition of the Australian energy market from the current centralised model, to a decentralised model that reduces the amount of power lost through the transmission process, and gain benefits from monitoring and better managing electricity demand and supply peaks,” Blair Pritchard, investment development director at CEFC, said in a statement.

CEFC, which has a A$10 billion investment mandate, is participating through the Clean Energy Innovation Fund, which is run in conjunction with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). Southern Cross’ contribution comes from the Southern Cross Renewable Energy Fund, which has A$120 million in committed capital, half from ARENA and half from China-based venture capital firm SBCVC.

The Clean Energy Innovation Fund was established last year and allocated A$1 billion by the government to help technologies move from demonstration to commercial deployment. It is seen as representing the government’s commitment to renewable energy after years of uncertainty – during which attempts were made to close CEFC and ARENA, while private capital invested in the sector plummeted.

In the past 12 months, CEFC has agreed to partner Palisade Investment Partners on domestic renewable energy projects valued at A$1 billion ($766 million) and the Clean Energy Innovation Fund has made a cornerstone commitment to the Clean Energy Seed Fund, which focuses on clean energy start-ups.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Technology
• Cleantech
• Early-stage
• Australia
• Venture