Need a sneak peek on the electric grid of the long run? Don’t glance to the U.S., Europe or China. As a substitute, head to Nigeria, the place Odyssey Power Answers has been exhausting at paintings. There, a shaky and incomplete grid has pushed many companies and communities to put money into mini- and microgrids which are powered through renewable power and in a position to working independently.
Odyssey has been construction a platform to assist builders release, construct and organize disbursed renewable power tasks in rising markets like Nigeria, Kenya and Sierra Leone. The ones efforts helped the corporate lift a $5.3 million seed spherical remaining summer season.
Now, simply seven months later, Odyssey has closed a $15 million Sequence A, TechCrunch+ has solely discovered. The spherical used to be led through Union Sq. Ventures, with participation from Equivalent Ventures, Twelve Under, Transition, Equator, MCJ Collective, Summary Ventures, Founder Collective and Local weather Capital.
The corporate collects knowledge on every venture that flows via its platform, which it then makes use of to assist traders vet long run tasks. A few of that knowledge additionally is helping builders procure apparatus for his or her tasks, be it sun panels, inverters or different key provides. And at the tail finish, Odyssey has instrument to keep an eye on the power flowing via builders’ mini- and microgrids.
When the corporate raised its seed spherical remaining 12 months, trade used to be just right. Odyssey co-founder and CEO Emily McAteer advised TechCrunch+ that her corporate had already constructed up a community of venture builders and had an important quantity of capital in its goal markets flowing during the platform. Its instrument merchandise had been additionally serving to builders procure provides for much less and extra simply organize the mini- and microgrids that they’d constructed. On the time, elevating a Sequence A briefly order wasn’t within the playing cards.
However that modified within the months that adopted. “We had some evidence issues that we would have liked to hit in launching the ones merchandise, and we type of hit them in no time,” McAteer stated. Some key hires additionally helped them all of a sudden perceive another ache issues that Odyssey shoppers often enjoy. McAteer referred to this mix of group and product as “a springboard.”