Emrgy, a woman-led renewable energy technology and project developer, has secured $18.4 million in a Series A funding round led by Oval Park Capital, with Key investors including Fifth Wall, Blitzscaling Ventures, Overlay Capital, and Veriten. The funding will allow the clean energy startup to deploy distributed hydropower projects, open a new turbine assembly facility in Colorado, and expand its development, operations, and engineering teams.
Emrgy's proprietary modular turbine technology harnesses power continuously as water flows in existing underutilized waterways and infrastructure, delivering low-cost renewable power to energy off-takers. The company's new projects will be developed in the Western US, Europe, and Australasia and provide power to agricultural, municipal, and utility off-takers.
Emily Morris, Founder & CEO at Emrgy, stated, "It is an honor to lead Emrgy into our next pivotal phase of growth, as we continue to deepen our efforts to meet record demand for renewable energy via rapidly deployable, cost-efficient technology.”
"We believe Emrgy’s modular, cost-effective, and quick-to-deploy systems have the potential to reintroduce hydropower to the global renewable energy conversation that has been dominated by solar and wind in recent years," said Justin Wright-Eakes, Managing Partner at Oval Park Capital.
Emrgy has already deployed its solution with notable commercial customers including Denver Water, Davis and Weber Counties Canal Company, and Oakdale Irrigation District domestically, among others. The company also has projects in New Zealand and a pilot system in South Africa.
"Water infrastructure holds instrumental opportunity for decarbonization, and Emrgy is accomplishing this in a scalable way that we have truly never seen before," said Peter Gajdoš, Partner and Co-Lead of The Climate Technology Investment Team at Fifth Wall.
With the funding, Emrgy plans to open its inaugural regional manufacturing facility in Aurora, Colorado this spring, with an estimated capacity of 5MW per month. The company expects to employ up to 30 engineers and operations specialists at the facility in 2023.
Emrgy also welcomed industry veterans Jennifer McFarlane and Bob Kelly to its Board of Directors. McFarlane is the Founder of Asterra Partners with a long career as a C-level executive in both public and venture-backed companies, including NEXTracker (NXT). Kelly previously served as Chief Financial Officer of SolarCity Corporation, as well as CFO and Executive Vice President of Calpine Corporation (NYSE: CPN).
