Stamford, Connecticut & Folsom, California – GE Energy Financial Services is joining SynapSense Corporations’s investors Emerald Technology Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, American River Ventures, Nth Power and DFJ Frontier in a combined $5 million investment for the development and market expansion of SynapSense’s Data Center Monitoring, Adaptive Control and Energy Management technology. Additional financial details of the investment were not disclosed.
“Deepening our relationship with GE through this investment and commercial collaboration will play a major role in helping SynapSense deliver digital energy services that extend wireless control and resource management to the entire IT facility infrastructure,” said Peter Van Deventer, CEO of SynapSense.
GE, which has used SynapSense technology in many of its data centers including GE Corporate and NBC Universal since 2008, will now collaborate with SynapSense on digital energy through a commercial partnership with GE Intelligent Platforms, a high-performance technology business that provides software, hardware, services, and expertise in automation and embedded computing. The partnership will combine SynapSense’s technology with GE Intelligent Platform’s Proficy Software and Control platform. This combined offering will enable data center operators to optimize energy use by continuously aligning cooling capacity with changes in IT load, saving up to 35 percent of cooling costs while ensuring security, redundancy and resiliency. GE’s Proficy software provides real-time insight on data center and other operational performance metrics to give customers information to make better business decisions.
“SynapSense is a strong addition to GE’s digital energy, Smart Grid and ecomagination-related investments, offering multiple commercial and development collaboration opportunities in a data center equipment market estimated at $40 billion a year, with annual electricity consumption costing $7 billion,” said Kevin Skillern, head of venture capital investing at GE Energy Financial Services.
Ecomagination is GE’s commitment to imagine and build innovative solutions to environmental challenges while driving economic growth. It is designed to help meet customers’ demand for more energy-efficient products and drive GE’s reliable growth. GE Energy Financial Services has been an active investor in emerging, market-leading ecomagination-, Smart Grid- and digital energy services-related technology companies.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, data centers are among the largest single sources of power demand in the United States, consuming about three percent. Facility operators rank energy efficiency as a top concern and it is also a significant goal of other industry players, government and utilities.
“The addition of SynapSense’s capabilities to our Proficy solution will enable GE to drive broader continuous improvement, with insight from the environmental metrics of the data center’s raised floor as well as detailed information about the critical power and mechanical infrastructure,” said Steve Doublett, Leader Datacenter Strategy, GE Corporate Global Infrastructure Services. “The solution provides tools and dashboards for a view of overall performance, trends and operational statistics that allow us to reduce cost and improve performance.”
SynapSense’s Data Center Monitoring and Energy Management solutions have been deployed in data centers operated by Fortune 500 companies from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. SynapSense was recently recognized as a Gold Medal winner in the SearchDataCenter.com 2009 Product of the Year Awards and part of the Global Clean Tech 100 by the UK Guardian and Clean Tech groups. Additionally, BusinessWeek and market researcher, YouNoodle, named the company one of the top 50 technology startups readers should follow.
About SynapSense
SynapSense is a leading wireless resource management solution provider based in Folsom, California. SynapSense offers the most advanced wireless instrumentation platform, delivering unparalleled visibility, resiliency and energy efficiency in the world’s leading data centers. For more information, visit www.SynapSense.com.
About GE Energy Financial Services
GE Energy Financial Services’ experts invest globally across the capital spectrum in essential, long-lived and capital-intensive energy assets that meet the world’s energy needs. In addition to capital, GE Energy Financial Services offers the best of GE’s technical know-how, technology innovation, financial strength and rigorous risk management. Based in Stamford, Connecticut, the GE business unit helps its customers and GE grow through new investments, strong partnerships and optimization of its $21 billion in assets. For more information, visit www.geenergyfinancialservices.com.
About GE Intelligent Platforms
GE Intelligent Platforms is an experienced high-performance technology company and a global provider of software, hardware, services, and expertise in automation and embedded computing. We offer a unique foundation of agile and reliable technology providing customers a sustainable competitive advantage in the industries they serve, including energy, water, consumer packaged goods, government & defense, and telecommunications. GE Intelligent Platforms is headquartered in Charlottesville, VA. For more information, visit www.ge-ip.com.
About GE
GE (NYSE: GE) is a diversified infrastructure, finance and media company taking on the world’s toughest challenges. From aircraft engines and power generation to financial services, health care solutions, and television programming, GE operates in more than 100 countries and employs about 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.ge.com.
Source: GE Press Release dated July 26, 2010.
