Renewables virtual power plant startup charges up with $17 million Series A

An energy infrastructure platform developing virtual power plants (VPPs) from household renewables as raised $17 million in a Series A.

The round for NRN (National Renewable Network) was led by existing backer Investible and Virescent Ventures, with Ecotone Partners joining the cap table via its new $25m Planet Fund. The capital raise was topped up with $50 million in debt from Mike Cannon-Brookes-backed ACT renewables infrastructure lender Infradebt’s managed funds taking the total pool of funding to $67.2m.

NRN raised $1 million in pre-Series A bridge funding 13 months ago, led by Investible, having previously banked a $3.5 million raise alongside a $10 million funding facility from Catalytic Impact Capital in December 2023.

NRN allows retailers such as Alinta Energy to offer customers solar and battery systems with no upfront costs, repayments, or system maintenance fees to households. The retailers can then build a distributed renewable energy portfolio and white-label it as their own VPP plan.

The cofounder of rideshare car subscription service Splend, Alan Hunter, launched National Renewable Network (NRN) in 2021.

“Our platform integrates tech, data, capital, compliance, and market access, to neatly solve the problem at both ends. For customers, it’s access to solar with no upfront fees,” he said.

“For energy retailers, NRN can instantly establish or scale distributed energy businesses without capital-intensive balance sheet burdens, while maintaining complete ownership of the customer experience. Our unique model is intentionally structured around empowering partners, never competing with them.”

NRN now has $12 million in renewable energy assets under management and nearly 10 megawatt hours of installed battery capacity, and expects to deploy an additional 40 megawatt hours of battery storage over the next 12 months.

The new will accelerate the rollout of its national platform.

The Series A is Investible’s third investment in NRN since its seed round in March 2024, investment principal Ben Lindsay said.

“This latest raise represents the largest investment from our fund to date, underscoring the conviction we’ve built in the team, the model, and the scale of the opportunity,” he said.

“In just over 18 months, NRN has grown its network by more than 505% by solving one of the toughest challenges in energy: making clean energy accessible and affordable for households.”