Toronto, ON, April 1, 2015
GreenSky Capital Inc. is pleased to announce that an investment syndicate, led by 3M New Ventures – the corporate venture arm of 3M – closed a USD$2.5M second tranche of funding in Toronto-based Smart Energy Instruments (SEI), a move that will further accelerate SEI’s commercialization efforts in developing electronic chipsets with high-precision, real-time monitoring capabilities for smart grids.
The investment from 3M New Ventures comes as several existing stakeholders also bolstered their equity in SEI, including Venturelink Funds, ArcTern Ventures and the Ontario Capital Growth Corp. Together with the first tranche of funding, which closed in July 2014, the financing round totaled USD$5 million. Other details of the transaction were not disclosed.
“We are honored that 3M is joining our team of investors,” said SEI CEO Jeff Dionne. “We’ve hit several key milestones in our company’s growth, and the utility market is now primed to take full advantage of our smart grid technologies. We see 3M as an important strategic partner to jointly develop and commercialize innovative solutions for utilities and electrical equipment manufacturers.”
SEI’s technology platform is based on a core set of chips with unprecedented measurement precision and low-power consumption that can be integrated into today’s intelligent electronic devices. It gives equipment manufacturers and utilities a huge competitive edge in functions such as grid load monitoring, fault detection and isolation.
Aging grid infrastructures and the surge in renewable energy sources – particularly solar and wind – are driving the need for more precise monitoring devices. 3M’s Electronics and Energy Business Group is building new platforms for greater relevance to the energy sector, and SEI’s chips will be a key part of 3M’s portfolio for grid automation.
About Smart Energy Instruments
SEI develops game-changing, synchronous measurement technologies for the burgeoning smart grid to address today’s global energy environment. The company is based in Toronto, with offices in Tokyo, Japan and Silicon Valley. For more information, visit www.se-instruments.com.