Silver Spring, the SmartGrid software developer, which has raised $275 million in venture capital since its 2001 launch, is prepping for a likely Initial Public Offering (IPO).
According to GreenTechMedia (citing an earlier Dow Jones news wire report) Silver Spring has hired Morgan Stanley and Jefferies & Co. as underwriters.
This potential IPO comes just a couple of months after Silver Spring, based in Redwood City, Calif., raised $100 million in new funding, mostly from returning investors including Google Ventures, Foundation Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Northgate Capital.
Smart grid is one of the “it” sectors in cleantech these days. Besides a pool of VC money, unprecedented funding from the Department of Energy is also supporting the technology. Over the next couple of years DOE plans to disburse nearly $4 billion in stimulus grants to support the development of smart grid technologies.
Specifically, Silver Spring, which has been called the “Cisco of he smar grid” develops Web-based tools that allow utilities and consumers to actively control their energy consumption.
Silver Spring is involved in a number of test projects that will likely get some of that government money, including one launched this summer in Chicago.