ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Emrgy, a woman-led renewable energy technology and project developer, today announced it has raised $18.4M in a Series A funding round led by Oval Park Capital. Key investors in the round include Fifth Wall, Blitzscaling Ventures, Overlay Capital, and Veriten. With this capital infusion, Emrgy will deploy distributed hydropower projects, open its new turbine assembly facility in Colorado, and expand its development, operations and engineering teams.
“As a company dedicated to decarbonizing the critical and vast real estate segment of water infrastructure, I’m thrilled to partner with investors who are equally as committed to our mission,” stated Emily Morris, Founder & CEO at Emrgy. “It is an honor to lead Emrgy into our next pivotal phase of growth, as we continue to deepen our efforts to meet record demand for renewable energy via rapidly deployable, cost-efficient technology.”
Emrgy’s waterpower technology leverages existing underutilized waterways and infrastructure to deliver low-cost renewable power to energy off-takers. The company’s proprietary modular turbine technology minimizes disruptive construction and harvests power continuously as water flows. Their new projects will be developed in the Western US, Europe, and Australasia and provide power to agricultural, municipal, and utility offtakers.
“We’re thrilled to support the Emrgy team as they accelerate deployment of their novel distributed hydropower technology in irrigation canals and other existing water infrastructure,” said Justin Wright-Eakes, Managing Partner at Oval Park Capital. “We believe Emrgy’s modular, cost-effective, and quick-to-deploy systems have the potential to reintroduce hydropower to the global renewable energy conversation that has been dominated by solar and wind in recent years.”
This spring, Emrgy will open its inaugural regional manufacturing facility in Aurora, Colorado with an estimated capacity of 5MW per month. The company expects to employ up to 30 engineers and operations specialists at the facility in 2023.
Emrgy’s solution has already been deployed with notable commercial customers including Denver Water, Davis and Weber Counties Canal Company, and Oakdale Irrigation District domestically, among others. Emrgy has projects in New Zealand and a pilot system in South Africa.
“Water infrastructure holds instrumental opportunity for decarbonization and Emrgy is accomplishing this in a scalable way that we have truly never seen before,” said Peter Gajdoš, Partner and Co-Lead of The Climate Technology Investment Team at Fifth Wall, the largest asset manager focused on improving, future-proofing, and decarbonizing the built world. “We look forward to seeing their technology deployed at a larger scale, particularly as the global real estate industry seeks ways to make meaningful use of underutilized resources. The potential return on investment is promising for the companies transforming idle waterways and water infrastructure into generators.”
Emrgy also welcomes industry veterans Jennifer McFarlane and Bob Kelly to its Board of Directors. McFarlane is the Founder of Asterra Partners with a long career as a C-level executive in both public and venture-backed companies, including NEXTracker (NXT) where she supported the company’s rapid international expansion. Kelly previously served as Chief Financial Officer of SolarCity Corporation, as well as CFO and Executive Vice President of Calpine Corporation (NYSE: CPN).
About Emrgy
Emrgy is a woman-led climate tech company designing and deploying innovative technology to decarbonize water infrastructure. Focusing squarely within the water-energy nexus, Emrgy’s hydropower systems integrate seamlessly into surface water conveyance infrastructure that spans thousands of miles around the globe, offsetting the cost and carbon footprint of pumping, treating, and transporting water.
Visit emrgy.com for more information.
About Oval Park Capital
Oval Park Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests primarily in deep technology startups in the Southeastern United States and other robust but undercapitalized startup markets. Oval Park partners with and actively supports exceptional and diverse founders and teams that are commercializing novel, disruptive, and protectable technologies to solve complex and costly global problems.
Visit www.ovalpark.com for more information.
About Fifth Wall
Founded in 2016, Fifth Wall, a Certified B. Corp, is the largest asset manager focused on improving, future-proofing and decarbonizing the built world. Since 2016, Fifth Wall has raised the third-most capital of any venture firm globally ($2.9B), according to SEC Form D filings. With approximately $3.2B in commitments and capital under management, Fifth Wall is backed by a global mix of more than 110 strategic limited partners from more than 15 countries, including BNP Paribas Real Estate, British Land, CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, Hilton, Hines, Host Hotels & Resorts, Kimco Realty Corporation, Lennar, Lowe's Home Improvement, Marriott International, MetLife Investment Management, MGM Resorts, Related Companies, Starwood Capital, Toll Brothers, and others. This consortium represents one of the largest groups of potential partners in the global built world ecosystem, resulting in transformational investments and collaboration with portfolio companies to cut emissions, improve efficiency, and maximize returns. Founded in Los Angeles and headquartered in New York City, Fifth Wall’s other offices include San Francisco, London and Singapore. For more information about Fifth Wall, its limited partners, and portfolio companies, visit www.fifthwall.com.
