Clean Energy Startup LevelTen Nabs $20M

Seattles LevelTen Energy, a TechStars accelerator alum founded in 2016, has raised $20.5 million in a series B funding round. The company will use the cash to expand its presence in North America and Europe and grow its platform, which allows companies to more quickly and efficiently fund renewable energy projects.

Company founder and CEO Bryce Smith wrote in a blog post that the new round would give LevelTen fuel to continue its growth and that he has no doubt that 100 percent renewable procurement will become the norm. The companys LevelTen Marketplace, which launched last year, has information on about 1,600 North American projects from more than 200 clean energy developers.

In our quest to remove all the barriers that prevent widespread renewable energy procurement, well open our platform to more channel partners and service providers, facilitating easier and better procurement for buyers of all types, Smith wrote.

LevelTen has now raised a total of $27.3 million. The round was led by Prelude Ventures, with participation from Constellation Technology Ventures, the venture investing arm of Exelon Corporation, Equinor Energy Ventures, Total Ventures and participants from LevelTens Series A funding: Avista Development, Element 8 Fund, Founders Co-op, Techstars Ventures and Wireframe Ventures.

The funding is especially noteworthy considering that companies addressing climate change have had difficulty raising money. A recent New York Times article, quoting from data supplied by Seattle-based Pitchbook, noted that funding for clean-tech startups has dropped during most of the past decade.

Other companies that have come from Techstars Seattle, which offers an array of programs for startups, include Outreach Inc. Earlier this year, the Seattle cloud-based sales software company reached unicorn status after its valuation topped $1 billion on the heels of a $114 million series E funding round.