Exclusive: Nyquis raises $6.3M for granular grid monitoring
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Photo collage: Ben Geman/Axios. Photos courtesy of Getty Images and Nyquis
Nyquis, a startup providing grid-monitoring technology, raised $6.3 million in seed funding led by Gigascale Capital and South Park Commons.
Why it matters: The financing comes as extreme weather heightens power supply risks, energy demand is rising, and a bipartisan push is underway to greatly expand U.S. transmission.
State of play: The firm founded this year attaches its "Nyquis Node" to substations to allow granular, digital tracking of line conditions.
- It can detect changes that can become expensive, dangerous events, like branches hitting lines, deteriorating connections, or arcing — releases of electricity that can create sparks and heat.
- This provides a more detailed window into the system, especially local distribution lines, to prevent problems like wildfires and outages.
The big picture: Utilities currently rely on separate data streams that are often "scattered and siloed," co-founder and CEO Daniel Hunter said.
- "We've built a high-resolution continuous monitoring system that finds these problems while the lights are still on," he said in an interview.
- The tech is akin to a "high-resolution EKG for the grid," a funding announcement this morning will state.
🗞Driving the news: Allison Pickens Ventures, Friale, Sovereign's Capital, Pioneer Fund, Script Capital, and Lost Coast Ventures also participated in the seed round.
- Nyquis has two customers to date, both in New Mexico — the Otero County Electric Cooperative and the Socorro Electric Cooperative.
Catch up quick: With Otero County, the first deployment, Nyquis detected dozens of potential problems from branches repeatedly contacting lines during a windstorm.
- The utility's existing equipment could not have detected these events, Nyquis said.
What we're watching: Beyond fault detection, Nyqius said its tech helps extend the reach of existing grids.
- "Nyquis complements historical engineering studies with live grid data, showing where new loads can connect and potentially reducing the time it takes to bring new projects online," the announcement states.
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