Australian climate-tech start-up Neara bags $45 million

by Admin
October 30, 2024

Australian climate-tech start-up Neara bags million

Neara’s Series C round is set to accelerate the company’s global operations as it continues its mission to modernise energy infrastructure.

Australian climate-tech start-up Neara bags $45 million. Pictured: Neara co-founders (L-R) Jack Curtis, Dan Danilatos and Karamvir Singh. Image source: Supplied

Key Takeaways

Climate-tech start-up Neara has bagged $45 million in its Series C funding round led by private equity firm EQT, with participation from Partners Group, Square Peg Capital and Skip Capital.
The company uses tech to provide a 3D visual representation of a utility’s critical infrastructure networks and assets, to run real-world scenarios, assess current and future risks and prioritise maintenance and disaster response.
So far, the company has modelled over 12 million infrastructure assets and has done extensive work to navigate Australia’s clean energy transition.
Neara will use its funding to accelerate its operations across the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia Pacific as the company continues to address increasing energy resilience and infrastructure modernisation challenges.

Key background

Neara, which was co-founded in Australia in 2019 by Daniel Danilatos, Karamvir Singh and Jack Curtis, uses 3D digital modelling to help utilities companies and engineers map and analyse their networks – a process that usually takes months or years, but that Neara claims it can perform in hours or days.

Utilities can then execute faster and make more informed decisions on issues ranging from routine operations and load growth planning, emergency scenario response strategies, and double and triple-digit million-dollar grid hardening decisions without the need for verification from manual surveys.

Neara’s map of dynamic line rating. Image source: Supplied

The Series C round was anchored by a consortium led by EQT, with participation from Partners Group, Square Peg Capital, Skip Capital and Prosus Ventures.

The funding is set to accelerate Neara’s operations across the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia Pacific as the company continues to address increasing energy resilience and infrastructure modernisation challenges.

Crucial quote

“We are asking the grid to do more in the next 10 years than we have in the last 50. Neara helps strengthen critical infrastructure to keep global communities safe, connected, and economically viable despite intensifying severe weather, age, and overuse. Reliable, affordable, clean energy depends on resilient high-functioning infrastructure, which demands the laser-focused, fast decision-making we’re empowering for utilities,” Jack Curtis, chief commercial officer at Neara, says.

Interesting fact

The investment marks EQT’s (a Swedish-head-quartered private equity firm’s) first venture growth investment in an Australian-head-quartered company.

“EQT is focused on making responsible investments that address global challenges and drive innovation for a better future. Neara exemplifies this by empowering mission-critical service providers to enhance infrastructure reliability and efficiency, unlocking bottlenecks, and accelerating the energy transition in key markets,” Sam Franklin, Managing director on the EQT Infrastructure advisory team, says.

Tangent

Start-up funding in Australia tanked to $695 million across Q3 due to a lack of mega-deals (deals above $100 million), according to Cut Through Venture’s quarterly funding report for Q3. Climate-tech dropped to eighth place in terms of sectors that received the most funding (from sixth the previous quarter).

And fun fact: if Neara’s Series C deal took place during Q3, it would make it the fourth-largest deal of that quarter (the top deal was SafetyCulture at $75 million).

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