Neara banks $45 million to expand its global utility partnerships

Sydney-headquartered climate tech platform Neara has secured $45 million in Series C funding to aid expansion into global markets of its AI-powered predictive modelling software, which helps utilities navigate clean energy transition complexities.

November 1, 2024 Ev Foley

Image: Neara

Originally launched in Australia in 2019, the funding will accelerate Neara’s global operations across the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Asia Pacific as it continues to address increasing energy resilience and infrastructure modernisation challenges.

Neara’s technology has modelled over 12 million infrastructure assets covering more than 2.4 million kilometres across four continents, improving network risk assessment and enhancing reliability and resilience.

Neara Chief Commercial Officer Jack Curtis said grids will be asked to do more in the next 10 years than the last 50.

“Neara can help strengthen critical infrastructure to keep global communities safe, connected, and economically viable despite intensifying severe weather, age, and overuse,” Curtis said.

“Reliable, affordable, clean energy depends on resilient high-functioning infrastructure, which demands the laser-focused, fast decision-making we’re empowering for utilities.”

The funding round was secured by a consortium led by USA-headquartered global investment organisation EQT, with participation from Switzerland-headquartered private equity firm Partners Group, Sydney-headquartered Square Peg Capital and Skip Capital, and Netherland’s based Prosus Ventures.

Square Peg Partner James Tynan said infrastructure is invisible until there is a problem, but then it can be a matter of life and death.

“With infrastructure under pressure like never before, Neara’s unique ability to help intelligently and cost-effectively manage these critical assets could not be more important,” Tynan said.

“At Square Peg, we concentrate our investments around a small number of outlier teams attacking critical global problems, and we’re proud to be continuing to back Neara almost four years into our journey with them.”

EQT Private Capital Australia Partner Frank Heckes said its investment marks EQT’s first venture growth investment in an Australia-headquartered company.

“We’re excited to further advance Neara’s growth and impact by leveraging our global network and expertise across energy transition, infrastructure augmentation and best-in-class software development,” Heckes.

Neara describes its 3D digital modelling technology as enabling utilities to adopt a more proactive approach to network optimisation through simulations surfacing safety and reliability risks and identifying the most effective remediation actions.

The software allows for critical analysis in hours and days rather than months or years for faster execution of more informed decisions on a range of issues ranging from routine operations and load growth planning to emergency scenario response strategies, without the need for verification from manual surveys.

In Australia’s Neara has been used by utilities Essential Energy, Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy, Powercor, and SA Power Networks. It is global utility partnerships with USA-headquartered CenterPoint Energy and Southern California Edison, Ireland-headquartered ESB Networks, Scottish Power, UK, and Hedno, Greece.

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