Australia SaaS platform Neara upsizes Series B
Australia’s Neara, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that helps power companies simulate natural disaster scenarios, has closed a USD 24m Series B round featuring Prosus Ventures.
Prosus invested as part of a USD 10m extension featuring Skip Capital and Square Peg Capital. It follows a USD 14m investment last year led by Skip and featuring Square Peg and OIF Ventures. Skip and Square Peg provided a USD 5.6m Series A in 2021.
Neara positions itself as the most comprehensive 3D simulation and analytics platform for electricity network infrastructure globally. The idea is to understand how networks behave in real-world environments during any scenario, thus empowering grid operators to make highly accurate decisions.
The company claims its predictive capabilities help mitigate high-risk exposure areas, combat the effects of climate change and extreme weather events, as well as accelerate renewable energy integrations by leveraging existing infrastructure. Its client base’s operational footprint spans more than 1m square miles and 8m assets.
The plan is to expand operations in the US and Europe, offering enterprise-grade, 3D network modelling technology that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to aggregate utilities' various data sources into one digital simulation environment.
Utilities use the model to simulate how their assets will respond in the real world under any condition based on hundreds of network and environmental variables. Near said the technology allows customers to speed up their processes for identifying and reducing risks by 9x.
“Neara’s AI simulation and analytics platform sits at the centre of the energy transition to ensure utilities are empowered to make holistic, system-wide decisions,” Jack Curtis, Neara’s chief commercial officer, said in a statement.
“Our system of enablement delivers one unified model to resolve critical macro issues, from designing stronger grids to mitigating damage caused by catastrophic weather events, as well as bringing renewable energy online faster using existing network infrastructure.”
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