Series‑A: Swiss smart grid company DEPsys receives CHF 2 million.

Puidoux — Follo­wing an initial Series A funding round of 3 million Swiss francs in 2016, DEPsys has recei­ved addi­tio­nal funding of 2 million Swiss francs from exis­ting inves­tors Stat­kraft Ventures and VNT Manage­ment, as well as from a new inves­tor, Swiss single family office Wecken & Cie. These funds will be used to further deve­lop the company’s smart grid solu­tion and thus streng­then its posi­tion on the Euro­pean market. The products and services help grid opera­tors seam­lessly inte­grate the incre­asing number of rene­wa­ble energy sources and elec­tric vehicles.

While the origi­nal funding enab­led the indus­tria­liza­tion of the GridEye solu­tion as well as the estab­lish­ment of a profes­sio­nal corpo­rate struc­ture, the addi­tio­nal funding serves to acce­le­rate the appli­ca­tion deve­lo­p­ment as well as the further deve­lo­p­ment of the inter­na­tio­nal market presence.
With this finan­cing, DEPsys crea­tes a very strong inves­tor base, which lays the foun­da­tion for another round of finan­cing in the double-digit milli­ons by other well-known inves­tors, which in turn will enable the prepa­ra­tion of the upco­ming globa­liza­tion as well as the posi­tio­ning as a world­wide market leader for the unique technology.

“Our solu­tion has matu­red signi­fi­cantly over the past 18 months, and we have been able to deve­lop a clear vision of the power grid of the future in the process,” explains DEPsys CEO Michael De Vivo. “We signed a number of very important inter­na­tio­nal agree­ments and contracts in 2017. This funding gives us the oppor­tu­nity to further streng­then our compe­ti­tive advan­tage and expand our reach.”

“We are very impres­sed by how quickly DEPsys has evol­ved from a clas­sic start-up to a domi­nant market player with dozens of custo­mers around the world. We look forward to further support­ing Michael De Vivo and his great team,” says Stefan Hülsen, Senior Invest­ment Mana­ger at Stat­kraft Ventures GmbH and member of the DEPsys Board of Directors.

“The DEPsys solu­tion has the poten­tial to become the leading real-time plat­form for low-voltage network manage­ment. Distri­bu­tion network opera­tors speci­fi­cally bene­fit from the “plug & play” concept, its easy instal­la­tion and the elimi­na­tion of a network model, which elimi­na­tes the need for time-consum­ing updates,” says Peter Auner, Part­ner at VNT Management.

Power grids require a balance between power gene­ra­tion and consump­tion. Due to the energy tran­si­tion, the simul­ta­neous gene­ra­tion of elec­tri­city by photo­vol­taic systems or the simul­ta­neous char­ging of elec­tric vehic­les exerts addi­tio­nal pres­sure on the balance of the power grid, which, in the worst case, can cause dange­rous situa­tions and possi­ble faults in the power supply. DEPsys’ GridEye smart grid solu­tion moni­tors, stabi­li­zes and opti­mi­zes the power grid in this new era thanks to high-precis­­ion measu­re­ments and advan­ced control algo­rithms in a fully decen­tra­li­zed architecture.

About DEPsys
Foun­ded in 2012, DEPsys AG is a Swiss tech­no­logy company that is a thought leader in the energy market. It provi­des smart solu­ti­ons that allow tradi­tio­nal low-voltage grids to handle the problems posed by the decen­tra­li­zed produc­tion of rene­wa­ble energy sources, such as solar panels, and large loads, such as char­ging infra­struc­ture for elec­tric mobility.

About Stat­kraft Ventures
Stat­kraft Ventures GmbH is a Euro­pean venture capi­tal firm working with excep­tio­nal entre­pre­neurs who are funda­men­tally chan­ging the energy sector. The company opera­tes an exit stra­tegy and is supported by the Stat­kraft Group, Europe’s largest produ­cer of rene­wa­ble energy. Stat­kraft Ventures invests on gene­ral venture capi­tal terms. The company invests 10 million euros every year.

About VNT Management
VNT is one of the first Euro­pean venture capi­tal compa­nies to focus on clean tech­no­lo­gies, parti­cu­larly rene­wa­ble energy, power elec­tro­nics and energy conser­va­tion. VNT is active in Scan­di­na­via as well as in German-spea­king count­ries. Curr­ently, VNT mana­ges three funds (Power Fond I, II, III) with an invest­ment capi­tal of 157 million euros. VNT invests mainly in tech­­no­­logy-orien­­ted start­ups and growth compa­nies. VNT execu­ti­ves have core expe­ri­ence in the power conver­sion and energy control indus­try. This gives the target compa­nies of the VNT funds the decisive added value. Exten­sive busi­ness expe­ri­ence, active manage­ment and fair play charac­te­rize VNT’s busi­ness principle.

About Wecken & Cie
The single-family office based in Basel invests, among others, in start-up and growth compa­nies with a focus on inter­net, soft­ware, tech­no­logy, medi­cal tech­no­logy in Germany and Europe.