Irish company UrbanVolt announces €55m funding deal with UK investment firm

L to R: Declan Barrett (CCO), Graham Deane (COO) and Kevin Maughan (CEO)

Independent.ie Business Desk

Irish company UrbanVolt have signed a €55m funding deal with UK investment firm Low Carbon.

The funding will help with UrbanVolt's continued expansion into overseas markets.

UrbanVolt, which established the Light as a Service business model (LaaS), said the investment will be used to deliver energy efficiency projects across the US, UK and Europe and is the biggest deal of its kind to date.

Some 45 multi-national companies have signed as Urbanvolt Laas clients to date, including major conglomerates Pfizer, Zimmer Biomet, Cargotec and Pipelife.

UrbanVolt and Low Carbon share a common mission to reduce global energy consumption.

The amount of CO2 emissions that will be reduced by this investment is the equivalent of removing all daily rush hour traffic from Manhattan.

UrbanVolt was established in 2015, delivering LaaS to corporate clients in Ireland, and increasingly to more clients abroad.

It upgrades commercial buildings to LED lighting for no upfront capital cost, enabling companies to save 75% on their lighting costs while also dramatically reducing their carbon emissions. A proportion of the energy saving is then paid to UrbanVolt as a service charge for the first five years, during which time UrbanVolt also maintains the lights.

UrbanVolt CEO Kevin Maughan said the new deal will underwrite the company’s international expansion.

“Low Carbon has an excellent record in investing in innovative business models in the energy services sector and we see them as a great long-term partner for UrbanVolt as we look to expand in the US, UK and Continental European markets.

“This deal will ensure that we can deliver thousands more projects each year. In addition, the multi-currency dimension of the financing arrangement is key given that we are working on new projects with a growing list of clients across the US and Europe.”

“In the US, there has been huge interest in our ‘off balance sheet’ Light as a Service offering with larger corporate clients and our existing projects with Irish-based US multinationals have proved invaluable in demonstrating the effectiveness of UrbanVolt in delivering large scale energy efficiency projects. We recently opened new offices in Chicago and Florida and we hope to open a further office in California in the near future.”

Dominic Noel-Johnson, Investment Director at Low Carbon, said: “Low Carbon is committed to investing in world class renewable energy solutions which mitigate the negative effects of climate change. UrbanVolt has developed a leading Light as a Service delivery model to help companies realise significant savings through energy efficiencies, without incurring any upfront cost. This has important financial benefits, but also ensures businesses are contributing to sustainably reducing their carbon emissions. We’re delighted to be working with the UrbanVolt team on this journey.”

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