Two months after closing on a $2 million round, a serial energy entrepreneur is at it again – this time reeling in more than $8 million for his stealthy new venture in Raleigh.
Utility Innovation Holdings, a startup led by Sidney Hinton, the retired CEO of Wake Forest-based PowerSecure – which is now part of Southern Company – has raised nearly $8.2 million in new equity financing. That’s a total of more than $10 million for the startup, which is less than a year old.
Hinton said the firm is taking advantage of the convergence of major trends like decarbonization, electrification and
digitalization – all to serve electric utilities and large energy users.
"With the digitalization, the expectations for enhanced reliability just continue to climb,” he said. “There’s an opportunity to design those solutions.”
The company aims to help deploy clean power around the world, and that includes offering solutions for energy storage and cybersecurity for the grid.
Hinton has bold ambitions.
While he won’t talk about specific projects or customers, he does say the firm is already profitable, with aspirations of going public in 2025. Its target geographies – North America, Europe and Asia – are rife with opportunity, he said. And he’s assembled a team he said can deliver.
“This entire business was conceived around green investing,” he said. “How do we make the world a better place from a sustainability standpoint?”
Hinton has been in the power space before, leading micro-grid builder PowerSecure through its 2016 buyout by Southern Company, a $431 million deal. The buyout valued his personal stake in PowerSecure at more than $11 million. Hinton only retired about three years ago.
The latest raise, which closed Nov. 30, attracted 10 investors, according to a securities filing. The securities disclosure on the August fundraise had only Hinton’s name. The latest disclosure lists Linda Koch, formerly of PowerSecure, as an executive, and Kent Geer of Med1 Ventures as a director. Hinton describes Koch, the firm's new CFO, as someone who can help guide the company as it grows. And Geer, former chairman of PowerSecure, was an easy pick, he said.
Hinton's strategy? Add smart people with good moral character and take advantage of their skillsets, he said.
Hinton declined to say how large Utility Innovation Holdings' team currently is.
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