Cleantech startup Emrgy secures $18 million to scale renewable energy projects within water infrastructure

Emrgy, a woman-led renewable energy technology and project developer, has announced it has raised $18.4M in a Series A funding round led by Oval Park Capital. Key investors in the round include Fifth Wall, Blitzscaling Ventures, Overlay Capital, and Veriten. With this capital infusion, Emrgy will deploy distributed hydropower projects, open its new turbine assembly facility in Colorado, and expand its development, operations and engineering teams.

Emily Morris, Founder & CEO, Emrgy: “As a company dedicated to decarbonizing the critical and vast real estate segment of water infrastructure, I’m thrilled to partner with investors who are equally as committed to our mission. 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.”

Emrgy’s waterpower technology leverages existing underutilized waterways and infrastructure to deliver low-cost renewable power to energy off-takers. The company’s proprietary modular turbine technology minimizes disruptive construction and harvests power continuously as water flows. Their new projects will be developed in the Western US, Europe, and Australasia and provide power to agricultural, municipal, and utility offtakers.

Justin Wright-Eakes, Managing Partner, Oval Park Capital: “We’re thrilled to support the Emrgy team as they accelerate deployment of their novel distributed hydropower technology in irrigation canals and other existing water infrastructure. 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.”

This spring, Emrgy will open its inaugural regional manufacturing facility in Aurora, Colorado 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’s solution has already been deployed with notable commercial customers including Denver Water, Davis and Weber Counties Canal Company, and Oakdale Irrigation District domestically, among others. Emrgy has projects in New Zealand and a pilot system in South Africa.

Peter Gajdoš, Partner and Co-Lead, The Climate Technology Investment Team at Fifth Wall:  “Water infrastructure holds instrumental opportunity for decarbonization and Emrgy is accomplishing this in a scalable way that we have truly never seen before. We look forward to seeing their technology deployed at a larger scale, particularly as the global real estate industry seeks ways to make meaningful use of underutilized resources. The potential return on investment is promising for the companies transforming idle waterways and water infrastructure into generators.”

Emrgy also welcomes 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) where she supported the company’s rapid international expansion. Kelly previously served as Chief Financial Officer of SolarCity Corporation, as well as CFO and Executive Vice President of Calpine Corporation (NYSE: CPN).

www.emrgy.com