Circadian, a tech company that enables frontier markets to adopt renewable energy, has raised €1.25m round led by BayWa r.e. Energy Ventures alongside Rockstart, Persistent Energy Capital, Great Stuff Ventures, Tofino Capital, and Ralicap Climate.
The startup plans to use the funding to expand its SaaS data platform functionality and scale operations to immediate demand.
The Berlin-based startup has developed an Energy Management System hardware and Software as a Service (SaaS) solution for solar developers and asset owners, particularly in grid-challenged emerging market countries in Africa.
Thanks to their all-in-one solution platform, the entire project value chain, from site assessment and design to commissioning and asset management, can be optimized.
Circadian helps C&I companies adopt renewable energy systems instead of diesel generators, starting with telecom tower companies across the continent, driving forward decarbonization on a significant scale. The team strives to become the leading B2B platform for Distributed Energy Resources (DER) in emerging markets.
Mike Rosenberg, CEO, of Circadian said: “We want to empower renewable energy installers and strive to be the catalyst for the mass adoption of decentralized energy in growth markets. Circadian is currently scaling across Africa, where we want to extend the team, build out the platform’s functionalities, and drive further growth. The backing of our investors will be a tremendous help for this.
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Greg Zavorotniy, Managing Director, BayWa r.e. Energy Ventures said: “With their innovative technology, Circadian facilitates solar microgrids for companies in emerging markets, making an important contribution towards decarbonization. This is our first investment on the African continent, and we are excited to see more opportunities from companies looking to accelerate energy transition in the region.
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Tobias Ruckstuhl, Managing Partner, Persistent Energy: “We see Circadian as a perfect example of an ecosystem player and enabler: they are filling a significant gap in the C&I solar space that we believe will help the whole sector scale faster and increase the rate at which renewable, solar energy replaces diesel generators and other sources of dirty energy. Their offering is particularly attractive for solarizing TelCo towers and thus, this is also an exciting and growing space that our investment in Circadian will give us further insights into.
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Max ter Horst, Managing Partner, Rockstar Energy: “Telecom tower companies and C&I customers in emerging and established markets want to reduce their diesel generator consumption by implementing renewable-powered microgrids.
“Circadian supports them with a hardware and SaaS platform that turns complex projects into plug-and-play solutions. In this way, the company greatly enables the scaling of renewable energy use among customers. We are thrilled to participate in this funding round, led by BayWa r.e. Energy Ventures, which will enable Circadian to expand its business even further
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