Electricity market simulation start-up Neara secures $15.25m in funding

Australian company Neara, which can simulate the life of a power network using AI and digital twin technology, has raised $15.25m.

Platform images from clean energy start-up Neara.

An Australian start-up which can predict the lifespan of an energy network by running it through digital simulations, including natural disasters, has raised another $15.25m.

Neara, a climate tech start-up which allows customers to build and test infrastructure digitally, raised the funds in a round with participation from Prosus Ventures, Skip Capital and Square Peg Capital. The raise was an extension of a $20m Series B raise it began in 2022, with the start-up now having raised $45m to date.

Co-founder Jack Curtis said the new capital would go a long way in supporting the start-up’s international expansion, with plans to expand its footprint across the US and Europe.

“We do have a short-term road map where we’re looking to bring on another 20 people internationally and then we’ll continue to see how we build out relative to the market adoption over time,” he said.

Neara, which works with about 70 per cent of Australia’s electricity market, uses artificial intelligence trained on more than a million energy assets to determine their life span and how they will hold up across natural disasters such as flooding. The start-up has also made a name for itself in helping energy providers develop the next generation of networks.

Mr Curtis said Neara was often asked to run simulations on existing networks including how infrastructure would cope if the temperature rose by 1.5 degrees.

“Our technology also considers the effect on networks if there was 20 times the number of electrical vehicles feeding into the grid or if there was a (doubling) in the number of solar panels on roofs across Australia,” he said.

Neara had grown quite rapidly over the past 4½ years as an increased importance was placed on energy networks, Mr Curtis said. It now has about 100 global staff, about 55 of whom are in Australia.

The start-up made a name for itself during the floods in South Australia last summer. “The typical response during floods is to send 1000s of people out in the field and measure how close the floodwaters were to electricity lines and then tell the control room,” Mr Curtis said.

“That process was then digitised in our platform where we were able to model the flood’s impact on the network and tell energy providers when they could power down. After two weeks of validation they were comfortable that we’re getting higher than 99 per cent accuracy.”

The start-up uses both digital twin technology – which allows a business to replicate their infrastructure online – as well as what it calls a behavioural twin. Using AI, that behavioural twin is able to make predictions over customised prompts.

While Neara was working with about 70 per cent of Australia’s energy networks, Mr Curtis said the start-up would continue to invest and develop its capabilities across the country so it could have full visibility over all networks.

Australia was ahead of the curve when it came to adoption of technology in the energy market.

“Beyond just the benefit of mapping an electricity grid, there are some interesting adoption paradigms we’ve seen that place Australia ahead of the game.

“The opportunity to play this role in the energy transition space and solve a big problem globally is really exciting.”

Originally published as Electricity market simulation start-up Neara secures $15.25m in funding