HOUSTON, May 5, 2022: Amperon Holdings, Inc., the leader in AI-powered grid forecasts, today announced $7 million in Series A funding led by HSBC Asset Management (NYSE: HSBC), out of HSBC’s new Climate Tech Venture Capital Fund. Proven to have the most accurate demand forecasts in the industry, Amperon is a critical tool for electricity market participants to address the growing issues of grid reliability and sustainability. The Series A brings Amperon’s total funding to $10 million.
With the advent of renewable energy, smart meters, battery storage, electric vehicles, and extreme weather events, power markets have become increasingly complex and volatile. Meanwhile, the tools to predict demand, an essential part of balancing the grid, have lagged behind.
“I’ve been in this industry for seventeen years, and the tools companies currently use are completely ineffective to tackle the energy transition,” said Sean Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Amperon. “We need a grid that runs on AI to keep up with these exponential changes. This partnership with HSBC means we can expand our presence to reach every electricity market participant.”
“We are excited to have Amperon in our new climate tech fund,” said Michael D’Aurizio, investment director at HSBC Asset Management. “There has been major underinvestment in utilities who still rely on legacy tools for their demand forecasting needs. However, power grids have taken on more intermittent renewables, flexible demand, and dealing with increasingly volatile weather. This poses a risk management challenge. Amperon’s laser-precise forecasts are critical building blocks that address the changes taking place on the grid and the need for net-zero emissions.”
Amperon is bringing its energy expertise and machine learning data science to solve these major problems – a combination never seen in the market before. “We believe that the energy world has been vastly underserved by the smartest AI minds and we intend to bring the two together,” said Abe Stanway, CTO and co-founder of Amperon.
Already active throughout the US, Canada, and Australia, Amperon will be using this funding to bring their AI-enabled, electricity demand analytics to new markets in Europe and Asia and broaden their customer base to utilities, virtual power plants, commercial and industrial customers, and grid operators who are in desperate need of innovation in the face of increasingly volatile energy supply and changing demand patterns. Other participants in the round included Riverstone Holdings, Muus Asset Management, Climate Capital, and Kiran Bhatraju, CEO of Arcadia.
Current customers are already aware how instrumental Amperon is to their daily operations:
ABOUT AMPERON
Amperon Holdings, Inc. is a technology company based out of Houston that builds AI-powered electricity analytics for energy market participants. Founded in 2018 by a seasoned data engineer and a veteran energy trader, Amperon serves electricity retailers, energy traders, grid operators, and utilities worldwide. Its mission is to bring AI to global grids in the service of grid reliability, risk management, and sustainability.
ABOUT HSBC ASSET MANAGEMENT
HSBC Asset Management, the investment management business of the HSBC Group, invests on behalf of HSBC’s worldwide customer base of retail and private clients, intermediaries, corporates and institutions through both segregated accounts and pooled funds. HSBC Asset Management connects clients to investment opportunities around the world through an international network of offices in 25 countries and territories, delivering global capabilities with local market insight. As of 31 March 2021, HSBC Asset Management managed assets totaling US$621bn on behalf of its clients. For more information, see www.assetmanagement.hsbc.com/uk.
HSBC Asset Management is the brand name for the asset management business of HSBC Group, which includes the investment activities provided through HSBC Global Asset Management (USA) Inc.
“Our virtual power plant utilizes precise forecasts and analytics that Amperon helps deliver. We are excited to continue growing with them as our trading desk partner.”
Matt Duesterberg
Founder and President at OhmConnect
“Amperon’s innovative modeling approaches produce high quality demand forecasts for the Australian NEM.”
Michael Davidson
Manager Operational Forecasting, Australian Energy Market Operator
“We use Amperon’s forecasting platform every day to help make better-informed decisions and to optimize our portfolio. It’s been a pivotal tool in our decision-making.”
Trader at Orsted, the world’s largest developer of offshore wind farms