Grid-focused AI startup Splight announced today that it has raised $12 million in its Seed funding round, with proceeds aimed at supporting the company’s global expansion plans and further product development for its solutions to help deploy clean energy at scale.

Founded in 2020, California-based Splight provides AI-based solutions aimed at unlocking the capability to deploy clean energy at scale on electricity grids. The company’s solutions focus on addressing grid congestion, or bottlenecks, caused by outdated contingency management methods that leave up to half of grid transmission capacity unutilized. According to Splight, grid congestion can cause up to 40% of renewable energy generation to be wasted, and leaves thousands of gigawatts of renewable energy projects waiting in queues to be connected to the grid.

Splight has developed an AI-based technology to tackle congestion, using real-time data and algorithms to utilize inverter-based resources (IBRs) as grid-friendly assets, enabling the acceleration of the connection of utility-scale renewable power plants and the deployment of distributed energy resources and batteries. The company said that its technology allows up to 2x extra transmission capacity to be unlocked.

The company said that the new capital will support the expansion of its North America and EU presence and the growth of its development, implementation, and leadership teams.

Fernando Llaver, CEO of Splight said:

“Our technology is proven and commercially viable: we are solving grid congestion while adding reliability. It can be deployed fast enough to inject more than 3,000 GWs of clean energy within months. This round is a huge vote of confidence and will be used to expand our business globally.”

The round was led by European built world venture capital firm noa (formerly A/O) and joined by EDP Ventures, Elewit, Draper Cygnus, Draper B1, Ascent Energy Ventures, Fen Ventures, Reaction Global, Barn Investments, and the UC Berkeley Foundation, among others.

Kia Nejad, Investor at noa, said:

“Energy curtailment is perhaps the most pressing issue for the transition to a sustainable energy system. Splight’s technology is a far more practical approach for modernizing the energy grid to meet current demands. We are excited to support Splight as they lead the implementation of scalable grid software, with an established presence amongst industry-leading customers in Europe, the US, and Latin America.”