Verdiem, a growing Seattle company that makes computer networks use less energy, has raised $8.33 million from seven investors including big-name venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
It is one of many companies riding a wave of public commitments by cities, companies, universities and other organizations to make their IT operations more energy efficient. The City of Boston and the City University of New York are two of Verdiem’s clients.
The company has been “toiling way for four years under the radar,” chief executive Kevin Klustner told us, but has noticed a huge recent up-tick in interest from companies. As the debate about global warming heats up, corporations are giving their IT departments stronger mandates to be more environmentally friendly.
Verdiem says it saves an average of $20-$65 per computer per year by moving each machine into a lower power state — hibernate, sleep or shut down — when it is not being used. For some organizations this can mean a five percent to 15 percent reduction in consumption immediately. For example, CUNY expects to save $3 million over the next five years — or 26 million kilowatt hours and 22,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Over 300,000 licenses for its flagship product, Surveyor, have been sold in North America to a wide range of organizations. Here’s an example of what that might look like, provided by the company:
Boston said in late April that it had saved 44 percent on PC electricity consumption since February, when it had installed Verdiem.
We’ve covered the “Climate Savers Computing Initiative,” an effort by leading tech companies, from Google to IBM, to lower the energy usage in machines they produce and use in their workplace. The initiative wants to change consumer behavior by encouraging users to manually power down their computers when not in use. Verdiem is a charter member.
There are an increasing number of startups working on variations of this idea. For example, we’ve mentioned Snap’s CO2Saver, which offers a downloadable tool that automatically adjusts power consumption when your computer is idle, and shows you how much CO2 you’re saving.
Verdiem’s latest Surveyor 4.0 software targets organizations: It lets IT managers centrally control the power-state of a computer from a central location. It says the software solves a concern that this kind of technology will interfere with other regular updates that need to be made across local networks. The software also includes business-focused functionality, such as security, work-group management features, and Microsoft Vista support (a Seattle connection?)
Like many startups we cover, Verdiem is not profitable and is taking on money to finance growth. Klustner says it had little trouble raising money.
The company has received a total of $15 million in funding.
Others include the Westly Group, Phoenix Partners, Falcon Partners, Catamount Ventures, Angeleno Group and Trevor Traina
Bonus: an audio interview with Klustner in May.
