Power purchase agreements (PPA) are the contracts that govern electricity transactions between buyers of electricity (typically utilities and companies) and sellers (independent power producers). These agreements typically influence the financing of power-generating projects. The same is true for the renewable energy market. RenewaFi is a marketplace for renewable energy where utilities and companies can directly transact with the owners of clean power generating assets like wind and solar installations. The platform is designed to streamline the process of acquiring clean energy, in terms of risk, cost, and time, paving the way for energy companies to increasingly adopt several forms of sustainable energy sources in their supply. Renewafi transforms a previously arduous and manual process into four simple steps, centered around the creation of automated auctions that are tailored to specific buyer requirements. As we rapidly move towards meeting the UN’s sustainable development goals by decarbonizing at scale, Renewafi accelerates the transition. The company currently has just under 50 participants in its two-sided marketplace including power producers that represent 200GW of clean energy production.
AlleyWatch caught up with RenewaFi CEO and Founder Noam Yaffe to learn more about the inspiration for the business, the future of clean energy transition powered by clean tech, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We recently completed a $3 million seed round with participation from First Round Capital, Floating Point, BoxGroup, and Powerhouse Ventures.
Kiran Bhatraju, the CEO of Arcadia, also participated in the round.
Tell us about the product or service that RenewaFi offers.
RenewaFi offers a renewable energy marketplace that helps companies and utilities buy renewable energy directly from clean power facilities like wind and solar projects.
Instead of spending sizable fees and months of effort to source and evaluate complex energy deals manually, RenewaFi helps companies and utilities build customized digital auctions for renewable energy, connects them to top responses from clean power facilities, and provides analytical tools that enable them to choose the right deals.
What inspired the start of RenewaFi?
I founded RenewaFi after working for a leading renewable energy project developer, where I realized that the traditional way of buying and selling renewable energy is not only heavily intermediated, inefficient, and expensive, but also incompatible with rapid decarbonization at scale.
Transacting renewable energy (most often in the form of a Power Purchase Agreement or PPA) is not only critical to the development of clean power facilities (developers need to secure long-term demand before they can launch a new project), but also represents the most authentic way for companies to authentically offset carbon emissions.
Using my prior experience as a technology investment banker, I developed a digital marketplace to make renewable energy transactions more accessible, efficient, and cost-effective.
How is RenewaFi different?
Before RenewaFi, renewable energy buyers and sellers had to source and evaluate transactions manually or rely on consultants to do the work for them. RenewaFi’s marketplace helps buyers and sellers find and evaluate renewable energy deals rapidly. Customers using RenewaFi have already saved months of time and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees.
What market does RenewaFi target and how big is it?
By making it easier to transact renewable energy, RenewaFi aims to accelerate the more than $2.5 trillion of projected investment needed to decarbonize the U.S. power sector and combat climate change.
International spend on renewable energy projects is expected to be several multiples of this investment.
What’s your business model?
RenewaFi earns success fees for renewable energy transactions that are facilitated by its marketplace. It also provides professional services.
What are your post-COVID office plans?
The company plans to open an office in New York.
What was the funding process like?
We couldn’t be happier with our investor consortium. This is our dream team.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Many tech investors are still relatively new to climate tech, so it took time for us to refine our story and explain complex energy topics in an accessible way.
Once we were able to do that, investors understood the opportunity and were willing to provide so much more than just capital.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Our investors share our view that sourcing and evaluating renewable energy deals is too difficult and is delaying the energy transition. And they recognize the tremendous potential of our technology to change that.
Our investors share our view that sourcing and evaluating renewable energy deals is too difficult and is delaying the energy transition. And they recognize the tremendous potential of our technology to change that.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Building on our initial traction with Fortune 500 customers, we will use our newly raised funds to further enhance our technology, grow our team, and continue to expand the marketplace.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
- Validate your idea with actual customers
- Perfect your demo
- Be an expert in your field
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
Nearly 50 market participants are already active in the marketplace, including Fortune 500 companies, utilities, commodity experts, and investment banks as well as power plant developers representing over 200 gigawatts – or more than $200 billion worth – of proposed renewable energy projects.
We plan to continue expanding the marketplace.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC?
Miznon.
