Utility data startup Urjanet raised $20 million in a Series C round led by Oak HC/FT, a health IT/FinTech venture fund, this week. The company’s data solutions help multinational companies automate their accounting and utility bill processing, lowering their environmental footprint. Now, Urjanet hopes to expand its global network of providers and launch new data applications in the FinTech area.
“Today, Urjanet’s utility coverage includes approximately 4,000 utilities worldwide,” says Sanjoy Malik, CEO and founder. “With Oak HC/FT’s financing, we will be able to scale that number substantially, expanding our reach to the world’s largest companies, and allowing us to make significant progress in building applications for financial services markets. We plan to hire considerably in Atlanta as well as in our office in Chennai to meet this demand.”
Urjanet’s utility data aggregation service can help enterprises save on utility costs and help them be more cost and energy efficient. The startup compiles all of the customer’s utilities, from smart meters to utility bills, and delivers them on a single standardized data feed for the customer to make more efficient decisions regarding their energy costs.
“In the past few years, there has been a movement within government agencies and private financial institutions to take a look at alternate sources of payment data, such as utilities and rent, to score individuals and make lending decisions,” says Malik.
Currently, Urjanet counts Honda, UPS, Cox Enterprises, Rubicon, and other in their impressive customer roster. In one example, Urjanet’s insights helped Cox Enterprises reduce their utility costs by 15 percent in some markets and immediately save $4,000 by moving a handful of accounts to an alternate rate, according to a corporate case study. Now they are moving toward customers in the FinTech space.
“Through this funding partnership, Urjanet will be poised to deliver our data services to the financial services industry to complement and drive forth the work that’s already beginning to take shape in alternative credit scoring and identify verification,” says Malik.
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