Wow! Hara Raises $25M More for Carbon and Energy Management

Software vendor Hara announced it raised an additional $25m, increasing the total capital raised to $45m. This fundraising further cements Hara’s leadership in the carbon and energy management software category that we call Enterprise Energy and Carbon Accounting (EECA).

The Series C founding round includes a handful of strategic investors (GE, NRG Energy, and ConocoPhillips) and new investors Focus Ventures and Navitas Capital. Ray Lane, the former COO of Oracle and partner at current investor Kleiner Perkins, joins the board as chairman.

The funds are for international expansion, acceleration of the product roadmap especially in energy management, and I suspect possible acquisitions.

Hara is already a leader in the EECA category with over 50 large customers, but this additional funding clearly separates them from the rest of the pack. Only the secretive startup C3, believed to have raised nearly $40m, has raised anything close to this amount of money.

This funding puts pressure on competitors such as AdvantageIQ, CA Technologies, Credit360, Enablon, EnerNOC, Enviance, IBM/Tririga, PE International, Schnieder/Summit Energy, SAP and others.

Carbon solutions for heavy emitters (oil/gas, utilities, and chemicals) remain dominated by EHS vendors like Enviance, Enablon, IHS, SAP, and a handful of smaller firms. The jury is still out whether Hara will expand its roadmap for heavy emitters that are the stronghold of traditional EHS vendors. The more likely scenario is that Hara will take its current product strength with low emitters, expand internationally and strengthen its energy management capabilities with 1-2 acquisitions.

This significant funding round makes Hara an even more formidable competitor for carbon and energy management solutions and a less risky vendor choice, even for the most risk adverse company.