Skip to main content

Columbia Business Monthly

Charleston Firm Continues to Innovate to Address Climate Change

Aug 05, 2020 11:50AM ● By David Dykes

Charleston-based Palmetto, a software, energy-focused company, said it has completed a $29 million Series B raise with investors from a range of sectors including energy, financial technology and software.

The company said investors participating in the capital round included Evergy VenturesArctern VenturesShell VenturesGreycroftLerer HippeauBox GroupFalkon Ventures and the Leto Family Office.   

"We are honored to have support from a wide range of partners and appreciate their recognition in the importance of our mission to mitigate climate change," said Chris Kemper, Palmetto's founder and CEO. "The proceeds from this investment will help us further grow our product lines and expand into a wider range of services with our consumers.

"Our core mission of climate change mitigation has remained front and center in everything we do for over a decade. Today, we're starting to see real results from that relentless dedication."

At a time when nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the federal government should do more to combat climate change, Palmetto officials said they are doing their part to scale their solutions and services to create a future powered by clean energy. 

The capital will be used for team growth, focusing on R&D, software, data science and the buildout of customer services, supporting Palmetto's continued geographical expansion, company officials said.

"The potential for rooftop solar and the electrification of homes in the U.S. is huge and the competitive landscape is fairly fragmented with just a few dominant players," said Robert Linck, chief investment officer of Shell Ventures. "Palmetto's platform strategy and plans for additional products and services such as EV charging, bill management and energy retail are exciting and will allow them to offer consumers truly integrated renewable energy solutions." 

"Palmetto is more forward-looking than the traditional publicly traded vertically integrated solar providers," said Brock Smith, managing director at Evergy Ventures. "The company has exhibited a clear path to customer acquisition cost reductions that are necessary to accelerate solar deployment around the United States."

Greycroft led Palmetto's Series A round in 2018.

Palmetto is focused on building and deploying software systems that help consumers understand their energy spend. 

The objective, company officials said, is part of shaping consumer energy consumption behavior and solutions to help them save money. 

A Forbes article last year said Palmetto was a rapidly growing clean technology enterprise driven to help Americans switch to solar power by facilitating access to information, finance and software to help them manage and monitor their installations.