LevelTen Energy scores $65M to scale clean energy transition

LevelTen Energy scores $65M to scale clean energy transition | ESG Dive

Dive Brief:

- LevelTen Energy, which specializes in providing financial transaction infrastructure for renewable energy deals, scored $65 million in its latest funding round, the company announced Tuesday.
- The Series D financing will help LevelTen scale its online platform — which connects renewable energy buyers, sellers, advisors, investors and asset owners — to support expansion into new markets such as clean hydrogen, and increase its global reach, per the company.
- The new funding was led by global investment firm B Capital and also backed by Google, Microsoft’s Climate Innovation fund, Equinor Ventures, energy supplier Constellation, climate tech venture capital firm Aster and others. The funding includes new growth capital and convertible loan notes, which can convert from debt to equity in future funding rounds.

Dive Insight:

The additional funding will also facilitate the company’s goal to develop a trading and management platform for “granular certificates,” verifying the time and location of carbon-free energy generation. The company plans to launch this platform in collaboration with Google, Microsoft, Constellation and American utility provider AES as part of the Granular Certificate Trading Alliance, which the companies announced in December 2023.

The LevelTen platform, which the company claims is the largest online hub and market place for carbon-free transactions, has facilitated power purchase agreements, asset sales and other renewable energy deals worth over $14.8 billion since its launch in 2018. In terms of energy, the platform has helped to procure over 8 gigawatts of clean energy according to the company.

The platform consists of an energy marketplace — which presents PPA opportunities — and an asset marketplace — which supports the purchase or sale of clean energy assets such as wind, solar and storage. Most recently, the company expanded the platform to help facilitate the transfer of federal clean energy tax credits, building on the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credit transferability mechanism. The company’s platform also provides users with software tools and industry-relevant information.

“The clean energy industry’s growth has been astonishing, but the climate crisis demands that we deploy even more clean energy at a much faster rate,” LevelTen Energy CEO Bryce Smith said in the release. “Our existential need to keep global warming in check requires us to scale procurement and bring new technologies to mass markets even more quickly.”

LevelTen Energy itself has pulled in over $125 million in investments since its inception in 2016, according to its release. The platform’s partners and buyers include companies such as Gap, Starbucks, Salesforce, Bloomberg, Workday and others, its website says.