WeaveGrid Announces $35 Million Series B Investment to Enable the Electric Transportation Transition

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Nov 15, 2022, 08:00 ET

Funding will support expanded product capabilities for utilities, deepen engagement with automakers, and enhance driver experience at a critical time for electric vehicles and the power grid.

Salesforce Ventures led the round, joining strategic and existing investors to drive software innovation at the intersection of energy and mobility.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- WeaveGrid, a software company that builds data products to enable rapid electric vehicle (EV) adoption, announced today that it has raised $35 million in Series B funding. Salesforce Ventures led the round, with participation from new investors Activate Capital, Collaborative Fund, Emerson Collective, and MCJ Collective and existing investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Coatue, Grok Ventures, and The Westly Group. With a continued focus on climate investments, the Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund took its first lead role in the WeaveGrid investment. The Series B comes just eighteen months after WeaveGrid announced its $15 million Series A.

The electric vehicle market is growing exponentially, and EVs could make up more than half of global automobile sales by 2035. Newly passed federal and state policies have positioned the EV market for rapid expansion, but there is a parallel transformation required to ensure power grids can handle the increased electric demand. WeaveGrid leverages machine learning capabilities and driver engagement tools to support EV charging optimization. The company's innovative SaaS platform solves emerging EV challenges to ensure the impending energy transition is clean, equitable, and resilient.

"We are proud to welcome Salesforce Ventures as the lead investor in this round. Salesforce is the leading enterprise SaaS company in the world — including in the utility and automotive sectors–and will make an excellent partner as we continue our growth," said WeaveGrid CEO Apoorv Bhargava. "How we handle tens of millions of new EVs coming onto the power grid is amongst the most important technological challenges in the clean energy transition. With this investment, we will expand our product capabilities, deepen engagement with our partner ecosystems, and make charging simple and convenient for EV drivers."

"Salesforce Ventures understands the importance of supporting businesses with software and solving critical problems," said Claudine Emeott, Partner, Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund. "SaaS- and cloud-based technologies are critical to the future of transportation — they can enable the integration of millions of new EVs to make the grid more resilient while increasing EV driver satisfaction. WeaveGrid is uniquely positioned to address these challenges."

Leading U.S. utilities, including Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Xcel Energy, and Exelon Utilities, deploy WeaveGrid's software solutions to lower grid infrastructure costs, integrate more electric vehicles, and save drivers money. The company recently announced a project with PG&E in California, which has the most EVs on its grid of any utility in the country.

"With one in six electric vehicles in the United States registered in our service area today, PG&E aims to support three million EVs on the road in our service area by 2030," said Aaron August, Vice President of Utility Partnerships and Innovation at PG&E. "To achieve that goal, PG&E is actively collaborating with innovative technology and software companies like WeaveGrid to integrate this coming wave of EVs onto the electric grid and help realize their full potential in delivering grid reliability, resiliency, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions."

"We value our collaboration with WeaveGrid to deliver successful solutions to our customers while helping them save money on EV charging," said Nadia El Mallakh, Vice President of Clean Transportation and Strategic Partnerships at Xcel Energy. "Xcel Energy has a robust clean transportation goal — to provide the fueling infrastructure and energy system to run all vehicles in its service area on carbon-free electricity or other clean energy by 2050 — and working with industry solution providers, like WeaveGrid, allows us to deliver more customers flexibility as they transition to a cleaner energy future."

Since its Series A fundraise, WeaveGrid has nearly tripled in size by hiring top-tier talent from leading technology companies, utilities, and automakers. The climate tech company has launched new products, proven traction through marquee contracts with utilities serving thirteen states, and developed new partnerships across the automotive sector. WeaveGrid will build on this momentum by scaling its team and platform to support more enterprise customers. The new funding will accelerate the development of WeaveGrid's product roadmap while continuing to improve the charging experience for EV drivers.

For more information: https://www.weavegrid.com

About WeaveGrid

WeaveGrid is a software company building data products to enable the electric transportation transition. The SaaS company's platform connects a growing wave of electric vehicles to an electric grid that was not designed to support the high-power needs of widespread charging. WeaveGrid uses cutting-edge data science and optimization to bring value to all stakeholders in this transition, including utilities, automakers, and drivers. For more information, visit www.weavegrid.com

About WeaveGrid's New Investors:

Salesforce Ventures

Salesforce Ventures helps enterprising founders build companies that reinvent the way the world works. Our Impact Fund accelerates the growth of enterprise software companies addressing some of today's most pressing needs. Since 2009, we've invested in and partnered with more than 400 of the world's most tenacious enterprise software companies from seed to IPO, including Airtable, Databricks, DocuSign, Guild Education, Hopin, monday.com, nCino, Snowflake, Snyk, Stripe, Tanium, and Zoom. With the addition of the Impact Fund, launched in 2017, we are supporting a new generation of innovative companies driving positive social change and building a more resilient and inclusive economy. Salesforce Ventures leverages our decades of expertise in the cloud and our long-term relationships with key decision-makers at thousands of businesses around the world to give our portfolio companies an unfair advantage, help them build credibility, and accelerate growth. Salesforce Ventures has invested in more than 25 countries with offices all over the world including in San Francisco, Irvine, New York, London, Tokyo, and Sydney. Follow @SalesforceVC and learn more at https://salesforceventures.com/impact-fund/

Activate Capital

Activate Capital is a leading partner to companies building smart, sustainable systems across the energy, mobility and industrial technology markets. Our vision is to build platforms for a resilient, sustainable future.

Collaborative Fund

With over $500M in assets under management, Collab Fund is a leading source of capital and strategic support for entrepreneurs, businesses, and protocols pushing the world forward. Learn more at collabfund.com.

MCJ Collective

MCJ Collective powers collective innovation for climate solutions by breaking down silos and unleashing problem-solving capacity. We're a platform for the flow of information, ideas, and capital needed to accelerate individual climate journeys and enable collaboration.

SOURCE WeaveGrid