CURRENT has received $13 million in funding to accelerate its market growth and product development of solutions that enable advanced metering, grid reliability, and transformer station communications. The innovator of smart-grid infrastructure and software solutions says the money will also help it continue expanding in Europe and Asia Pacific.
CURRENT’s new investors are Business Media China and Espírito Santo Ventures. Other investors are Associated Partners, EnerTech Capital and Goldman Sachs.
“European utility investments in smart grid, buoyed by the European Union’s 2020 climate change initiative, are driving significant market demand for innovative products designed for the European grids," said Pedro Ribeiro Santos, principal at Espírito Santo Ventures. “We interviewed many European utilities as part of our investment decision process, and we strongly believe that CURRENT is well positioned to fundamentally change how utilities approach building next-generation smart grid systems."
CURRENT, which recently announced customer wins at Iberdrola (Spain) and Electrica (Romania), also appointed new members to its management team. New president and CEO is Tom Willie, who previously served as the company’s chief product officer. Willie also had been directly responsible for overseeing CURRENT’s expansion in global markets.
“The growth of CURRENT’s business through our smart metering, grid reliability, and substation communications products in the European and Asia Pacific markets, coupled with a recognition through new funding of our expanded business opportunities is extremely exciting for our organization," said Willie.
CURRENT also named John Du as its new chief financial officer. Du previously served as the CFO of Ocular Inc., a Hick’s Holding company and leading developer of LCD display screen systems.
With its new management team and funding in place, CURRENT will continue its focus on developing the connectivity and analytical solutions utilities need to achieve what the company calls Connected Intelligence. CURRENT’s product solutions include PLC-based data concentrator hardware and data collection software for advanced metering, sensing hardware and event detection software for grid reliability and optimization, and smart grid routing platforms for IP connectivity to transformers and within substations.
