Our Investment in Verse
A better way to buy and manage clean power
As the world increasingly feels the effects of climate change, the call for sustainable, clean energy is louder than ever. Corporate and governmental clean energy commitments that aim to reduce emissions through renewable energy generation have become increasingly common. However, procuring, managing, and reporting on clean energy remains extremely complex and expensive, effectively limiting clean energy portfolios to only the biggest organizations.
Most companies utilize renewable energy certificates (RECs) as their method of procuring clean energy. RECs, which separate credits from the physical energy generation, have experienced significant cost fluctuations and thus no longer promote new renewable energy project development. Several studies have concluded that carbon emissions reductions through RECs are actually much lower than many companies have claimed. While some companies have switched to power purchase agreements (PPAs), which provide price stability and specify the amount of clean energy purchased on an annualized basis, neither RECs or PPAs include specifics on the timing of energy generation. Considering the electricity grid uses significant renewable energy during the day (e.g. solar) but often relies on fossil fuels at night, this characteristic hinders actual emissions reductions. RECs and PPAs may provide corporations with the chance to acquire clean energy offsets that only cover their daytime grid usage in the case of solar power while disregarding their energy consumption at night.
So, how can we unlock the benefits of clean power for organizations everywhere?
Seyed Madaeni and Matt Penfold created Verse to solve this problem. Founded on deep industry experience and a profound understanding of the challenges associated with procuring and optimizing clean power, Verse’s platform, Aria, uses generative artificial intelligence (AI) to provide a comprehensive solution for organizations to buy and manage clean power at a fraction of the time and cost required today. We’re absolutely thrilled to support Seyed, Matt, and the growing Verse team as they pursue their mission of unlocking clean energy for organizations everywhere.
What is Verse?
Verse has created a SaaS platform called Aria that uses generative AI to ensure companies get their desired mix of carbon-free energy round-the-clock in just minutes. Aria lets companies define, design, manage, and report on optimal portfolios of clean energy assets to meet their financial and emissions-reduction targets. To achieve this, Verse's tool matches companies with clean power plants and digitally controls them through AI and machine learning.
Verse empowers companies by allowing them to set parameters that target specific goals (e.g., financial, emissions, etc.), hedge exposure to fossil fuel price fluctuations, optimize clean power asset management, and report on portfolio performance. By doing so, Verse's Aria platform opens new opportunities for corporate and institutional offtakers while drastically simplifying the process and driving decarbonization across industries.
Verse also assists companies in optimizing the mix of electrons they consume directly or in finding and sponsoring clean and renewable energy projects on grids with higher typical emissions than their local grid. This concept, known as emissionality, is gaining recognition as a way to further support decarbonization efforts.
Why Did We Invest?
Compelling Founder-Market Fit
Both of Verse’s co-founders, Seyed Madaeni and Matt Penfold, have significant experience in energy markets, a track record of scaling clean energy software, and a history of building successful businesses. Prior to launching Verse, the pair worked together at Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS) on an AI-powered SaaS platform that provided wholesale market optimization for utility-scale solar, wind, and energy storage. AMS was subsequently acquired by Fluence [NYSE: FLNC], and its software became Fluence’s Mosaic Bidding platform.
Seyed has been building software products to optimize the electricity sector for over 10 years. Before founding Verse, Seyed served as the Chief Digital Officer at Fluence, where he played a central role in the company's successful $5B+ IPO, overseeing its digital business unit. Seyed was instrumental in growing Fluence’s renewable portfolio to over 10GW. Earlier in his career, Seyed was the CEO of AMS, where he pioneered a flagship market bidding product that eventually led to the company's acquisition by Fluence. Seyed also contributed significantly to Tesla, SolarCity and PG&E, providing technical oversight for several groundbreaking wholesale market-facing software applications. Seyed holds a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from Ohio State University.
Verse’s CCO, Matt Penfold, previously held the positions of Vice President at Fluence Digital and CCO at AMS, leading commercialization of the world’s leading AI wholesale market bidding software for utility scale clean energy assets, taking the idea from a whiteboard sketch to 10GW of assets under management. Before that, he was a Manager at Bain & Company. Matt holds an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelor’s of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering from the University of Melbourne.
Leveraging the Power of AI to Speed and Scale Corporate Power Procurement
Electricity accounts for approximately 25% of global carbon emissions, with the majority of this demand stemming from commercial and industrial organizations. To reduce electricity production’s contribution to climate change, we must transition to clean power as quickly as possible—a goal that is being recognized by companies everywhere. Corporate sentiment is shifting towards a more diversified approach to clean energy procurement that ensures a positive environmental impact and moving away from traditional PPAs and RECs.
However, directly buying clean power or implementing a diversified clean energy procurement strategy is difficult for most companies, especially for those without dedicated teams and resources. Even further, most organizations are still using manual processes to manage and report on their energy portfolios.
This is where Verse comes in. With its Aria platform, Verse provides granular control over the clean energy procurement process, simplifying and speeding the transition to a diversified clean energy mix. The platform streamlines the identification and procurement of solar, wind, storage, and other renewable energy sources through a data-driven approach, making it faster, easier, and more cost-effective for companies to transition off fossil fuels.
We believe that Verse's platform is the next step in making clean power accessible as it enables companies to transition to a clean, de-risked power portfolio without needing to invest in full teams or use legacy tools like spreadsheets. By leveraging AI to help companies accelerate the clean energy transition, Verse is poised to become a significant player in the corporate clean energy market.
Additional Resources
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