A Brisbane energy tech startup just raised $9 million from Right Click and a government fund

Energy tech startup Redback Technologies has completed a capital raising round that’s brought in $US7 million ($9 million) from Right Click Capital and the Clean Energy Innovation Fund.

The latest cash injection follows a $9.3 million investment from EnergyAustralia almost exactly a year ago, and last month’s launch of Redback’s Smart Hybrid System for home use.

Redback’s products use machine learning to predict solar power generation and customer usage, then makes decisions to reduce energy usage. The company has offered its Generation 2 Smart Hybrid System to 1.7 million customers around Australia since the EnergyAustralia deal.

This time the Clean Energy Innovation Fund, which is funded by federal agency Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), will contribute $US5 million, while Right Click Capital is tipping in $US2 million.

CEFC chief Ian Learmonth said Australia has the highest penetration of rooftop solar panels in the world, and local firms like Redback were set to take advantage.

“We can lead the way in developing innovative technologies like Redback’s that mean households and businesses get the most benefit from these investments,” he said.

“We want to see home and business energy management systems and battery storage solutions become commonplace in Australia, offered as part of an integrated power solution that gives consumers more control over their energy.”

Redback founder and managing director Philip Livingston said the new funds would be used to accelerate development of its machine learning software and hire 30 more research and development staff in the next 6 months. Read more

Tony Yoo - Business Insider Australia - 12 Oct 2017