Case Study
How Arcadia and Salesforce Ventures Partnered in Their Shared Vision Toward a Zero-Emissions Future
the opportunity
It’s Hard to Improve If You Don’t Have Clear Data
Kiran Bhatraju grew up in coal country in Eastern Kentucky—a unique background for someone who’s spent the majority of his professional life focused on reducing the need for fossil fuels and accelerating the clean energy transition. Ten years ago he was running business development at American Efficient, a company he founded to improve energy efficiency and help customers save money on their utility bill. In that role, he consistently came up against a major blocker: an unintelligible mess of data that was exhausting and expensive to decipher.
Across utilities, usage data differs greatly in form, quality, and also in how and where it’s housed. Additionally, there’s no consistency in the frequency and style in which data is presented. Bhatraju knew solving this problem would be key to helping people and organizations understand their energy usage and transition to clean energy. In 2014, he sold his company and started a new one—Arcadia—based on the belief that everyone deserves access to clean energy.
Initially, Arcadia monetized its utility data technology platform to serve solar developers and consumers in the community solar market. In the years since, Arcadia has expanded to create a robust, global enterprise-grade platform for data, tariffs, and payments.
Arcadia’s solution pulls energy usage and pricing data from thousands of utility providers around the world to help businesses understand how various types of energy are priced for different types of customers at different times of the day. Its platform makes it easy for any company to act on its environmental impact and build the next generation of energy products and climate tech solutions. Ultimately, Arcadia aims to fulfill Kiran’s vision of providing ubiquitous access to accurate, trusted, and verifiable energy data.
“The transition away from the fossil fuel era is going to require installing billions of machines into the power grid,” said Kiran. “If we are going to achieve our net-zero emissions goals, we need to pull out all of that rich data that lives within utilities so that the companies providing clean energy can build their projects. If we have these tools, we can get to 100% clean energy much faster than anyone expects.”
In 2021, Arcadia sought out new investment to help the team build out its data platform offering. The company had just signed its first enterprise customers, and was well-positioned for further growth—but needed a partner who could aid their expansion into new markets and facilitate the go-to-market (GTM) needs for their new enterprise offering.
Salesforce Ventures is a remarkably engaged investor, constantly seeking opportunities to play a role in making us better. Their partnership has been crucial to our growth
Paul Mulé, CFO, Arcadia
the solution
A Shared Vision for a Zero-Carbon Future
Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund is a leading investor in the climate software sector. The fund is particularly bullish on data infrastructure, as data is necessary to scale platforms—and that’s as true in climate tech as any other sector. After performing due diligence into data infrastructure solutions for climate tech, we came to view Arcadia as a leader in the industry. This prompted our team to proactively reach out to Arcadia through a relationship with one of Arcadia’s existing investors.
During our initial conversations with the Arcadia team, they explained how they were looking for a partner with go-to-market expertise and insight into the enterprise that also shares their commitment to enabling a clean energy future. We pitched Arcadia on how the Impact Fund has been advising portfolio companies on how they could help enterprise clients meet their ESG targets. We also detailed the connections, access, and insights we could offer their team through offerings like our Innovation Advisory Board and product Demo Days, introductions to enterprise customers, and exclusive industry events.
Based on these value-adds, Salesforce Ventures was offered allocation in Arcadia’s Series D round in December of 2021 to support the team in their mission to achieve a zero-carbon future.
We have a shared vision that together, we can significantly impact the transparency, disclosure, and actions that companies take to accelerate the transition toward a 100% zero-carbon future. I think we’re better together as a result of it.
Kiran Bhatraju, Founder and CEO, Arcadia
the impact
A RICH PARTNERSHIP
The relationship between Arcadia and Salesforce Ventures is far deeper than an investment: it’s a multi-layered partnership.
For starters, Salesforce Ventures has connected Arcadia with resources to support key business initiatives. For instance, before Arcadia acquired Urjanet in 2022, Salesforce Ventures connected Arcadia with our internal M&A team to go over M&A best practices. Arcadia also benefits from connections with other leaders in the portfolio to discuss best practices for business building. Arcadia leaders recently participated in Salesforce Ventures’ workshop on how climate tech startups can sell to utility providers.
Introductions are another way Arcadia has derived value from their partnership with Salesforce Ventures. The Impact Fund team has facilitated introductions with dozens of potential customers and investors. These connections have provided Arcadia with access to potential new business opportunities and capital.
The Salesforce Ventures brand has also elevated Arcadia’s brand and marketing efforts. Bhatraju spoke at Dreamforce about the value Arcadia brings to enterprises working toward improved sustainability. The company has also had the opportunity to speak at other Salesforce Ventures-hosted events, including our annual CEO summit, Elevate, a portfolio lunch in New York City, and Climate Week SFVC. Attending and meeting industry experts, colleagues, and customers at these events is a valuable way for Arcadia to increase its exposure in the market and make valuable connections.
“When you have someone like Salesforce who’s endorsing and inviting you to get on stage, there’s a tremendous amount of visibility and brand validation that comes with that,” said Bhatraju.
What’s more, Salesforce Ventures sponsored a third-party assessment of Arcadia’s corporate responsibility program to identify strengths and opportunities for its roadmap and annual reporting.
Finally, Salesforce Ventures helped facilitate a connection between Arcadia and Net Zero Cloud—a horizontal software solution that helps enterprises streamline their ESG management by providing analytics, advanced AI, and access to an ecosystem of apps and providers. Through its Data Connector on AppExchange, Arcadia provides Net Zero’s enterprise customers precise, reliable data about their energy usage, which helps make the recommended solutions from Net Zero more effective; and Net Zero provides the support Arcadia needs to scale.
The joint solution provides powerful commercial validation for Arcadia. In product demos, potential buyers are impressed by the accuracy, speed and simplicity with which all their utility data from hundreds of locations around the world can be fed into and analyzed by their Net Zero Cloud instance, helping them make smarter energy decisions.
“It’s effectively a referral partnership where an enterprise comes to Net Zero Cloud and Net Zero Cloud says, ‘you should feed auditable data into our ecosystem as an input’ and makes a referral directly to our enterprise sales lead,” said Paul Mulé, Arcadia’s CFO. “Every contract that we’ve signed through Net Zero Cloud was a direct referral from Salesforce.”
>10 → 350
enterprise customers
150 → 800+
employees
the future
Battling Climate Change Together
Salesforce Ventures has been a committed partner: the firm has invested in multiple rounds of Arcadia’s funding, including the company’s most recent round in 2022—a clear show of confidence in the value of the business to the market.
Today, Arcadia’s data platform boasts over 350 enterprise customers — democratizing access to data from more than 8,000 utility providers worldwide, with 95% electric utility data coverage across the US. Arcadia’s Signal product covers over 25,000 tariffs and riders utilizing a versatile data model. What’s more, Arcadia was recently named a Top GreenTech Company by Time.
In addition to its work supporting businesses with their energy data needs, Arcadia also still operates its successful community solar program, which allows renters and homeowners to connect to local solar projects and receive annual savings on their power bills. The program has over two gigawatts under management.
“Salesforce Ventures is a remarkably engaged investor, constantly seeking opportunities to play a role in making us better. Their partnership has been crucial to our growth,” said Mulé. “The team’s strategic mindset and delivery on the promise has been really strong.”
How We Provide Value
Our track record in the enterprise is unparalleled. Since 2009, we’ve invested in and partnered with more than 400 of the world’s most tenacious enterprise software companies from seed to IPO.
Entire Salesforce Ecosystem
Access to the Salesforce ecosystem offers portfolio companies opportunities to innovate collaborate & advanced their technological solutions, and leverage our global platform for scaling operations effectively.
Operational Support & Expertise
Operational support and expertise provides portfolio companies with the tools needed to optimize their processes, enhance efficiency, and drive growth. We offer insights and hands-on assistance to help navigate their business operations.
Customer Engagements
Connecting portfolio companies directly with F1000 leaders and decision makers within specific market segments allows portfolio companies to showcase their transformative solutions and receive actionable feedback.
Industry Connections
Connecting portfolio companies with key stakeholders, thought leaders, and influencers across industries. This network not only opens up new business opportunities but also provides insights into industry trends, regulatory changes, and emerging challenges, helping companies stay ahead in a competitive landscape.
AppExchange + Industry Clouds
Companies can leverage Salesforce’s specialized platforms for building and deploying applications. This exposure enhances their visibility within the Salesforce ecosystem, providing access for their solutions to customers, while benefiting from the robust Salesforce infrastructure.