ENGIE New Ventures invests in the start-up Raptor Maps

ENGIE New Ventures, ENGIE’s corporate venture capital arm dedicated to innovative start-ups which accelerate the energy transition, is one of a number of partners – including MacKinnon, Bennett & Co (MKB), Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Blue Bear Capital, DNV and Buoyant Ventures – to invest in Raptor Maps, a Boston-based start-up providing a leading SaaS platform for the lifecycle management of photovoltaic solar plants.

Raptor Maps has created a SaaS platform called Raptor Solar that enables companies and industrials in the photovoltaic solar sector to standardise the collection and analysis of data from their solar plants to improve their performance throughout the lifecycle of the assets, from financing and development throughout to operations and maintenance. Platform users can thus benefit from an unlimited number of inspection reports, quantify financial losses resulting from technical problems and even compare their portfolio of assets with the Raptor Maps global database (active in over 40 countries).

The Raptor Solar SaaS platform is also an auditable system of record of solar plants, thanks in particular to a cutting-edge digital twin technology. In a world first, users can for example digitise solar panel serial numbers to optimise warranty claims and verify supply chains.

« We are very excited about this new investment in Raptor Maps. Data collection and analysis will play a key role in the development of the solar industry and we are extremely proud to contribute to ENGIE’s development in the renewable energy market through this investment in a cutting-edge innovation”, said Johann Boukhors, Managing Director of ENGIE New Ventures.

Focusing on solar to develop renewable energies

ENGIE is looking to achieve 50 GW of installed renewable capacity by 2025 and 80 GW by 2030. Solar will play a key role in this development, which is why the Group is always looking for innovative solutions to support its growth and to achieve operational excellence.

« ENGIE has strong growth ambitions in Renewables and has set the objective to more than double its installed capacity by 2030. As a global developer and operator of Solar PV assets, not only development, financing, execution to add capacity, but also ensuring performance in the O&M phase throughout the operational lifetime of the assets entire lifecycle is important to achieve our ambitions. Raptor Maps SaaS and data analytics would help us prioritize corrective actions to maximize plant availability and operational performance that is consistent with ENGIE’s roadmap in operational excellence”, added Jaideep Sandhu, CTO ENGIE Renewable.

This financing will enable Raptor Maps to accelerate its recruitment across all levels in order to strengthen its product offering, its software developments and its expertise in data science. The company is also looking to improve the analyses resulting from its machine learning capacities and to develop new functionalities such as workflow automation, work orders and investor reporting. In addition to machine learning, the Raptor Maps data model is also an industry leader through its analysis of a database of 50 GW of active solar systems across 40 countries, with a review of under-performance published every year by the company in its Global Solar Inspection Report.

About ENGIE New Ventures

ENGIE New Ventures (ENV) is the corporate venture capital arm of ENGIE, the global energy and services provider. ENGIE is committed to lead the energy revolution, towards a more decarbonized, decentralized and digitized world. ENV is a €180 million investment fund focused on making minority investments in innovative start-ups. Since 2014, ENV has deployed over €164 million of capital across 29 investments, in disruptive start-ups leading the energy transition and active in renewable energies, hydrogen, energy efficiency and flexibility, heating and cooling networks. ENV's offices are represented in Paris, San Francisco, Singapore, Santiago and Tel Aviv. Please visit: www.engieventures.com.