MaRS client Smart Energy Instruments closes angel financing
Toronto, February 9, 2011 – MaRS Discovery District is thrilled to announce that one of its Cleantech clients, Smart Energy Instruments Inc. (“SEI”, formerly ANI Technologies Corp.) of Oakville, Ontario, has successfully closed a private placement of $850,000 with a group of angel investors from Toronto and New York.
The net proceeds of the angel round will be used by SEI to file its patents, begin pilot projects with the current prototype of its smart grid monitoring device, hire a number of key employees and further solidify relationships with its multi-national industry partners in North America and Asia and a leading US national lab. SEI technology can monitor power flows through electrical networks, giving grid operators the means to monitor and manage their core energy assets and better predict and avoid network failures.
SEI was one of the most recent participants in an ongoing series of MaRS Cleantech angel events. “This was an effort to bring serious angel investors together with some of the great early-stage cleantech companies we work with at MaRS,” says Tom Rand, MaRS’ Lead Cleantech Advisor. “Seed funding is a key component in a company’s life-cycle toward commercialization and one of the harder pieces of the puzzle for entrepreneurs. The MaRS Cleantech angel event is meant to get those companies over that hurdle. To investors, the value is to bring forward qualified, high-value investment opportunities with strong growth potential,” says Rand.
“Raising capital for early-stage technology companies is always a challenge, as technical risk is a big hurdle for investors,” says Geoff Simonett of GreenSky Capital, a boutique corporate finance advisory firm based in Toronto and one of the investors in SEI. “MaRS brought real value to SEI by first assisting the company in crafting a message that was properly targeted at early-stage investors and then by providing a forum to put that message in front of them. SEI is very happy to see MaRS stepping up to play this much-needed role.”
About Smart Energy Instruments:
SEI builds next-generation technology that measures power flows—a key missing component of the Smart Grid. Using SEI’s technology, utilities and grid-operators will be much better able to identify choke points, anticipate problems and have significantly improved visibility of their power assets.
Incorporated in 2004 and based in Ontario, with a wholly owned subsidiary in Japan, SEI’s initial Smart Grid device is able to communicate information about the power grid securely, with far more detail and frequency than anything on the market. With one device, SEI is able to improve upon and replace several categories of current products including synchrophasors, meters, power quality monitors and IEDs or relays. By integrating current communication protocols and supporting multiple networking standards, SEI devices can be deployed throughout the grid and networked together. Onboard logic systems and microsecond monitoring will allow the devices to capture data, communicate issues and make adjustments to the grid before any human interaction is required – which is the purpose of the Smart Grid.
About GreenSky Capital:
GreenSky Capital is a boutique corporate finance advisory firm based in Toronto, delivering customized financial solutions to small and medium sized businesses. GreenSky’s mandates are long-term partnerships with high growth potential companies and dedicated entrepreneurs where it supports the execution of strategic transitional events. GreenSky is focused on business and relationship building as well as the ultimate transaction.
About MaRS Discovery District:
MaRS Discovery District (www.marsdd.com) is a large scale, mission driven innovation centre located in Toronto and networked across Ontario, focused on building Canada’s next generation of technology companies. MaRS works closely with entrepreneurs in life sciences and health care, information, communications and entertainment technologies, clean tech, advanced materials and engineering, as well as innovative social purpose businesses.
For more information contact:
Vanessa Caldwell, MaRS Communications
vcaldwell@marsdd.com
416.673.8200 x2240