Nexant Closes $43 Million New Financing

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nexant, Inc., a global provider of intelligent grid software and clean energy solutions, announced today that Oak Investment Partners and Intel Capital, along with existing investors TeleSoft and Beacon, have invested $43 million in new capital to fund the company’s growth and expansion.

“In its first decade, Nexant has evolved into a recognized global leader in the energy and chemical industries, with thousands of successful deployments around the world”

“The markets for energy efficiency, renewables, and carbon management worldwide—areas in which Nexant excels—represent an enormous opportunity which Nexant is exceptionally well-positioned to lead,” said Arjun Gupta, Nexant Executive Chairman. “This new capital will enable us to develop and deploy our new platform, GridSmart®, and multiple new applications like TrakSmart® for the next-generation power grid. In addition, we will strengthen and expand our Chemsystems® offerings worldwide.”

Nexant's software focuses on the sophisticated demands of next-generation electricity grid operations and energy markets—managing energy efficiency, demand response, and distributed generation; improving the efficiency of the power grid; and supporting market operations. Nexant also provides technical, operational, and strategic consulting services to utilities, and oil, gas, and chemical majors.

“Our clean energy investment strategy targets companies that deliver solutions designed to increase the overall efficiency of the energy market,” explained Bandel Carano, Managing Partner of Oak Investment Partners. “We identified Nexant as a successful and profitable company that is ready to be taken to the next level. We recognize Nexant’s unique combination of software and services, together with its global customer base, have enormous potential to revolutionize key segments of the energy business. This funding provides additional resources for Nexant to accelerate development of its offerings and grow its market share significantly.”

“In its first decade, Nexant has evolved into a recognized global leader in the energy and chemical industries, with thousands of successful deployments around the world,” said Basem Sarandah, Nexant founder and President. “As we enter our second decade, we look forward to working with Oak, Intel, TeleSoft, and Beacon on the many new opportunities ahead.”

“As global data center energy consumption soars, utilities are increasingly looking at technologies that could bring about big energy savings to relieve pressure on their grids,” said Steve Eichenlaub, Managing Director, Intel Capital. “Nexant's established presence in the energy software and services space has given the company a deep understanding of the many complex issues facing public and private sector participants in the energy industry. Intel Capital's investment, combined with collaboration with Intel, aims to further define and expand Nexant's data center efficiency offerings by pairing Nexant's established relationships in the utility sector with Intel's deep knowledge of datacenter technologies.”

About Oak Investment Partners

Oak Investment Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm with over $9 billion in committed capital. Its primary investment focus is on high-growth opportunities in communications, information technology, clean energy, consumer internet/new media, financial services technology, healthcare services, and retail. Over the past 32 years, Oak has achieved a strong track record as a stage-independent investor funding more than 485 companies at key points in their lifecycle. Oak has been involved in company formation, funded spinouts of operating divisions and technology assets, and provided growth equity to mid- and late-stage private businesses and to public companies through PIPE investments. Representative Oak clean energy investments include Aurora Algae, Boston-Power, eSolar, GreenVolts, Protean Electric, and SunDrop Fuels. For more information, visit www.oakvc.com.

About Intel Capital

Intel Capital, Intel's global investment organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology startups and companies. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, home, mobility, health, consumer internet, semiconductor manufacturing, and cleantech. Since 1991, it has invested more than $9.5 billion in over 1,050 companies in 47 countries. In that timeframe, 174 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 241 were acquired or participated in a merger. In 2009, Intel Capital invested US$327 million in 107 investments with approximately 50% of funds invested outside the United States and Canada. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages visit www.intelcapital.com.

About TeleSoft Partners

TeleSoft Partners is a special situations venture capital firm founded by Arjun Gupta in 1996. It focuses on multi-stage venture investments and special situations in the information technology, communications, and energy value chain industries. TeleSoft is typically a contrarian investor taking a lead or co-lead role as an operational value-added partner. TeleSoft has raised capital commitments in excess of $625 million in multiple funds. Over the last 16 years, TeleSoft and its principals, pre-TeleSoft, have funded and helped build 61 companies, resulting in 35 mergers, acquisitions, and IPOs to date, with 10 companies remaining private. TeleSoft’s strategic partnerships include AllTel, Deutsche Telekom’s T-Ventures, and Symphony Technology Group. For more information visit www.telesoftvc.com.

About Nexant

Nexant, Inc. is a premier provider of software and consulting services for the next-generation intelligent grid and clean energy solutions. For the last decade, it has been developing and commercializing technology solutions—such as TrakSmart®, GridSmart®, HEDGE®, COMET®, and RevenueManager^TM— enabling utilities, power producers, and retailers to operate and deploy new technologies and applications in the emerging grid. Operating from 25 offices in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, the company's team of industry professionals have completed more than 2,500 client assignments in over 100 countries, and its software operates in over 120 control centers at utilities worldwide. Its clients include major utilities, transmission and distribution system operators, chemical and petroleum majors, financial institutions, government agencies and Fortune 500 companies. For additional information, visit www.nexant.com.