Power upstart Light snags $46 million for expansion
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Light, a Texas startup that enables businesses to offer customers bespoke, branded retail electricity plans, raised $46 million in Series A funding, the company told Axios.
Why it matters: It will support Light's expansion outside Texas into the massive PJM market and beyond as it challenges incumbent power giants.
- Light works with solar companies, homes and multi-family buildings, EV charging providers and others.
- Its growth arrives amid rising power demand and costs.
Zoom out: "This industry, especially retail electricity, in the U.S. is dominated by these very large incumbents that are offering this one-size-fits-all product," co-founder and CEO Baker Shogry said.
- "Our north star is we want to enable partners to give their customers an electricity plan and solution they can't get anywhere else," he said in an interview.
Zoom in: The VC firm Matrix led the round, joined by Activate Capital and existing investors like Spark Capital, Mischief, Gigascale Capital, MCJ and BoxGroup.
- The company, founded in 2023, has now raised around $60 million, with a capital base north of $100 million when you throw in credit access.
How it works: Light works with companies to create and tailor branded retail electricity plans for customers — a complex and time-consuming process that Light handles quickly, the company said.
- It operates behind the scenes on everything from regulatory compliance, power procurement, billing and more, while opening new revenue streams for clients.
Catch up quick: Existing clients include the solar and battery storage provider Palmetto; GoodLeap, which offers a suite of residential energy products; and Ownwell, which provides homeowners with services to lower taxes and other costs.
- Shogry estimates that around 30% of U.S. households and 40% of U.S. businesses have flexibility to choose power providers independently of which utilities own transmission and distribution infrastructure.
State of play: Providers of hardware like solar systems and EV chargers offer a more complete product if it comes bundled with a retail electricity plan, Shogry said.
- Higher demand and costs are leading more companies to see the benefit of entering into direct energy relationships with their customers, he said.
"It's becoming increasingly difficult to just sell hardware and then leave your customers to ... procure the electricity when it's increasingly volatile, confusing, and expensive to do so," he said.
- By working with Light, renewables and storage providers can also help customers monetize those assets by selling power back into the grid.
What we're watching: Shogry said Light has begun talking to data center developers as potential clients.
- He said that data centers could address public pushback by offering power at lower rates in communities where they hope to operate.
- "It allows companies that want to solve these problems to set the tempo and provide a very concrete example of how they're being good stewards," he said.
