Scoop: Nvidia-backed Emerald AI raising $25M to cut data center energy demand
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
Emerald AI, which develops software to curb data-center energy demand, is raising $25 million in seed extension funding, two sources familiar with the offer tell Axios Pro.
Why it matters: Nvidia started deploying Emerald's tech last fall.
Zoom in: Energy Impact Partners is among the lead investors through its Frontier Fund, with Shayle Kann as lead partner.
- The valuation of the "opportunistic" round is roughly $250 million post-money valuation, the sources say.
- Emerald AI and EIP declined to comment.
How it works: Emerald AI's software adjusts data centers' electricity consumption to ease grid strain, shorten grid-connection waits, and avoid higher prices during peak demand.
Follow the money: The current fundraising round is at least the third raise for Emerald AI, which had raised about $42.5 million previously.
- The D.C.-based startup emerged from stealth last summer with $24.5 million in seed funding from backers including Nvidia, former climate envoy John Kerry, Kleiner Perkins chair John Doerr, Google chief scientist Jeff Dean, and AI scientist Fei-Fei Li.
- Then it closed another $18 million in extension funding in October, led by Radical Ventures and Lowercarbon Capital.
Fun fact: CEO Varun Sivaram, a former climate aide to Kerry under President Biden, was named to Time's Climate 100 in October.
