BluWave-ai announced today the completion of a $3.9M round of seed financing. Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) had the largest contribution with $2.43M of non-dilutive financing, confirmed in Q3 of 2019. A consortium of international private investors complemented this with $1.2M in the same quarter. In Q1 2020, OCE completed the round with $300K through its Market Readiness fund (equity financing) and an additional non-dilutive grant.
BluWave-ai provides SaaS solutions enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) for sustainable energy transformation of industrial customers, utilities, and electric fleet operators. The funds raised will drive the company’s penetration further into the international smart grid and renewable energy markets, build its patent portfolio, and enable its 2020 commercialization roadmap of multiple product releases.
Leah Lawrence, SDTC President and CEO, commented, “SDTC supports Canadian companies with the potential to become world leaders in new environmental technologies addressing climate change, clean air, clean water and clean soil. With their data-driven approach to optimizing renewable energy sources, BluWave-ai is one of the country’s leaders in efforts to reduce climate change globally.”
“Identifying high-potential opportunities and providing early-stage funding is critical to reducing risk and encouraging follow-on investments from domestic and international investors,” said Claudia Krywiak, President and CEO, OCE. “BluWave-ai is an excellent example of Ontario-accelerated global innovation and OCE is proud to be a partner in its ongoing success.”
Since opening the seed round in Q2 2019, BluWave-ai has landed utility and commercial customers on three continents. In Summerside, PEI, Canada, BluWave-ai deployed the first AI-enabled optimal energy dispatch in the Canadian utility market. In Ontario, Canada, the company secured a $1M AI-enabled energy optimization project with the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO). In India, BluWave-ai partnered with Tata Power, accomplishing live operational AI-enabled, day-ahead dispatch for the city of Mumbai. In the UK, the company partnered with independent power producer (IPP) Greencat Renewables to optimize the operational cost of a grid-attached waste recycling facility with battery storage, wind, and solar energy resources. Overall, by the close of the fiscal year on October 31, 2019, BluWave-ai surpassed $1M of bookings.
The company has been honored with several recent awards. In September 2019, BluWave-ai won the Smart Grid Start-up category at the 24th World Energy Congress Abu Dhabi, UAE. In November 2019, the IEEE Ottawa Section named BluWave-ai the 2019 Outstanding Clean Technology Company. In February 2020, the company was selected to the Top 15 finalists for the 2020 Startup Energy Transition Awards by the German Energy Agency (dena).
“Our exceptional team at BluWave-ai has been firing on all cylinders, as demonstrated by successes in customer traction, industry awards, product development milestones and financial outcomes,” said Devashish Paul, CEO BluWave-ai. “When BluWave-ai was founded in 2017, AI applied to sustainable energy was just emerging from research labs and now the company is one of the dominant players in a high-growth, multi-billion dollar market.”
Due to the risks posed by COVID-19, the Startup Energy Transition Awards will not take place in March 2020 as originally planned. The event will be rescheduled to later in the year and BluWave-ai will then pitch to win the Digital Energy Systems category.
