Australia 3D network modelling firm lands $45 million to target global markets

An Australian start-up with ground-breaking 3D, AI-driven technology that allows networks to make the most out of their assets has raised another $45 million in a new funding round to help target global markets including Europe, the US and the Asia -Pacific.

The Sydney-based Neara says it has raised the money in a Series C funding round, which was led by Swedish-based global infrastructure group EQT, private equity giant Partners Group, Australia’s Skip Capital (Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar, Paul Bassat’s Square Peg Capital and South Africa-based Prosus Ventures.

The company says it will use the money to support its global operations across the Asia Pacific, the US, UK and Europe, as the world looks to ways to boost energy resilience and leverage grid infrastructure to accelerate the clean energy transition.  

Neara was founded in 2019 and is co-founded by Jack Curtis, formerly of First Solar, and its technology has been key in unlocking hidden potential for major investments in renewable and storage projects previously not thought possible.

It says its technology can help utilities perform critical analysis of their assets in just hours and days that would otherwise have taken months or years.

“We are asking the grid to do more in the next 10 years than we have in the last 50,” says Curtis, now the company’s chief commercial officer. “Global utilities are identifying and addressing potential outage risks nine times faster, restoring power three times faster and bringing new infrastructure online 85 per cent faster.”

In Australia, the company has worked with the NSW distributed network owners Essential Energy, Ausgrid and Endeavour Energy, along with Victoria’s Powercor, and South Australia Power Networks. Overseas it has worked with Southern California Edison, Ireland’s ESB Networks, Scottish Power, and Hedno in Greece.

“For most of us, infrastructure is invisible until there is a problem, but then it can be a matter of life and death,” said James Tynan, a partner at Square Peg.

“With infrastructure under pressure like never before, Neara’s unique ability to help intelligently and cost-effectively manage these critical assets could not be more important.

Cyrus Driver, managing director at Partners Group, said the Neara technology is essential to run high-functioning and resilient infrastructure. EQT says it is their first venture growth investment in an Australia-headquartered company,