Energy data startup Arcadia valued at $1.45B in pre-IPO round

Arcadia, a startup that pulls energy-use data from smart meters via its API, raised $200 million in Series E funding at a $1.45 billion valuation. It's likely the last round of private financing the company will complete prior to a public offering, CEO Kiran Bhatraju tells Axios.

Why it matters: Public markets are a mess, the IPO window has all but closed, and growth funding rounds are becoming harder to secure, making this a precarious time for any late-stage company.

Driving the news: JPMorgan Chase led the round through its Sustainable Growth Equity Team.

• New investor Triangle Peak Partners also participated in the round, which closed last week, and existing investors Camber Creek, Tiger Global Management, Wellington Management and Drawdown Fund re-upped.

State of play: Bhatraju, who previously started a company in the cleantech 1.o cycle, credits climate technology's current "super cycle" with continued investor excitement even as activity in other sectors slows substantially.

• "It's a different experience than some of my founder friends," Bhatraju says of his most recent fundraising.

How it works: Arcadia collects energy-use data from smart meters through its API, which helps energy generators like community solar projects better sell energy to local utilities.

• The data would plug into other data providers' sets, Bhatraju says, and the company will eventually look to use that data itself for carbon accounting.

• "A lot of what's out there right now is really hand-wavey, but if you had the kilowatt-hour data of a building, you have a more accurate view of its footprint," Bhatraju says of current carbon accounting software.
• Arcadia currently manages 700 megawatts of solar energy from several community solar projects nationwide, Bhatraju says.

The bottom line: $200 million is still a lot of money, so Arcadia may be in a comfortable place to wait out public market volatility as it preps for an IPO.