Tendril Secures $30 Million Series C Funding

Venture Community Validates Need for Open and Extensible Energy Management Operating Environment

Boulder, Colorado – June 9, 2009

NEWS FACTS

• Tendril, creator of the Tendril Residential Energy Ecosystem (TREE) for utilities, energy retailers and their consumers, today announced it has secured $30 million in Series C funding.
• The investment was led by VantagePoint Venture Partners, a recognized leader in the clean tech space, and includes Good Energies, the leading global investor in renewable energy and energy efficiency solutions, RRE Ventures, a builder of leading companies in the software, communications and financial services industries, Vista Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm based in Boulder, Colorado and Appian Ventures, an investor in software and technologies that improve business performance through the application and management of network connectivity.
• Substantiating Tendril’s open platform approach to smart energy management, this significant investment will allow the company to scale to meet increased demand for its TREE Platform as utilities move into pilot and rollout phases.
• The company will also invest to build out Tendril’s growing network of TREE partners, including in-house device and appliance manufacturers, advanced meter vendors, application developers and others.

About TREE

• The Tendril Residential Energy Ecosystem (TREE) is the first integrated software and hardware solution that enables two-way dialog between utilities/retailers and their customers, allowing them to manage the consumption and supply of energy in smarter, more efficient ways.
• TREE gives energy providers unprecedented insight into consumption patterns, as well as the ability to deliver important messages regarding household usage.
• It offers the ability to communicate the need to reduce consumption in order to prevent impending brownouts and saves energy companies money by allowing them to reduce their energy output during peak demand times in collaboration with their consumers.

About the TREE Platform

• At the core of Tendril’s TREE is the TREE Platform, an energy management operating and communications environment.
  • The solution links in-home devices with enterprise-class computing and utility back-office systems to enable utilities and their customers to better manage energy consumption.
  • The TREE Platform has the ability to manage messaging, security, privacy and upgradeability all in one seamless connection.

• Application suites built on top of the platform allow utilities to communicate beyond the meter, enabling them to scale smart energy programs while managing evolving consumer preferences for in-home devices that help manage energy consumption.
• Consumers are provided with simple tools and information to impact their energy consumption decisions.

Related Quotes

• “We are seeing an explosion of business and are excited to quickly move into this next stage of growth and customer adoption. Smart energy management is poised to take center stage and we see the need now more than ever for an open operating environment to enable a smart, information-driven power grid.” – Adrian Tuck, CEO, Tendril
• “Tendril addresses a critical need in the energy management space by delivering unprecedented transparency into how and when consumers use energy, allowing both consumers and utilities to manage power in smarter, more efficient ways. Our investment in Tendril’s residential energy management solution marks an important addition to VantagePoint’s CleanTech portfolio, and is a natural extension of our work to initiate transformation in LED lighting, lighting controls, building technologies and the smart grid.” – Alan Salzman, CEO, VantagePoint Venture Partners
• “In designing our Smart Grid pilot program, we wanted to be able to provide customers with real-time energy usage information, while at the same time keeping costs down. Tendril presented us with a solution that helps us combine our existing infrastructure with advanced technology to help our customers become educated energy consumers.” – Larry Gelbien, vice president of engineering at Boston utility NSTAR
• “We believe in the power of information technology to transform the energy sector. As the world moves to re-architect its energy infrastructure, companies like Tendril will be critical in enabling new economic models through technology innovation. We are proud to continue our long-standing commitment to Tendril as a pioneer in this emerging space and a key pillar in RRE Ventures’ green technology portfolio. – Harsh P. Patel, general partner, RRE Ventures
• “Vista is proud to be a local investor in Tendril, a company that is demonstrating to the nation the strength of the ecosystem in Colorado to build leading companies in the clean-tech space. Over the last several years that we have been investors, the management team has consistently executed to vault themselves into a market-leading position. This financing will allow them to continue to build on their market lead.” – Catharine Merigold, general partner, Vista Ventures

Supporting Resources

• Tendril on the Web
• Tendril Blog
• See a Demo
• About VantagePoint Venture Partners
• About Good Energies
• About NSTAR
• About RRE Ventures
• About Vista Ventures
• About Appian Ventures

About Tendril

Tendril enables true 21st century energy efficiency by establishing a dialog between consumers and their energy providers. The Tendril Residential Energy Ecosystem (TREE) is comprised of the TREE Platform an open, extensible and standards-based operating environment for energy management, TREE Energy Programs, a comprehensive suite of energy management applications (like Demand Response and Time-of-Use Pricing) and TREE Home Energy Devices, a suite of in-home hardware (like thermostats and outlets). TREE is a comprehensive and consumer-centric ecosystem that is designed to integrate seamlessly with a Utility’s or Energy Retailers’ existing back office applications and network infrastructure allowing consumers and their energy companies to communicate, collaborate and create — Smart Energy for Life™.

Media Contacts

Brad Langley
Phone: 415.856.5104
Email: blangley@blancandotus.com
-or-
Marie Bahl
Phone: 303.468.4445
Email: mbahl@tendrilinc.com