Slater Tech reinvests in VCharge

By Kimberley Donoghue
PBN Web Editor
Twitter: @kdonog

PROVIDENCE – Slater Technology Fund, the state-backed venture capital fund, said Monday it has reinvested in energy management services company VCharge bringing its total investment to $250,000.

VCharge’s electric thermal storage system buys energy for a building or a home from the grid at the cheapest time during the day, a Slater spokeswoman explained.

Slater’s $100,000 equity commitment came in a $1.9 million round that included investments from the Clean Energy Venture Group, Launchpad Venture Group and EOS Ventures.

VCharge plans to use the funding to prove operational and technical scalability in pilots this winter, to grow its team and to improve its core product, a news release said.

“As a Rhode Island company, it is exciting to receive continued support from Slater,” said Jessica Millar, CEO of VCharge. “These two rounds of investment by the fund played a big part in getting us to where we are today.”

“The members of the VCharge team are true thought leaders,” said Thorne Sparkman, managing director of the Slater Technology Fund. “By adding a network-based layer of real-time intelligence on top of energy assets that have often been in place for decades, VCharge is fundamentally changing when and how electricity is bought and sold.”

“Slater is pleased to reinvest, this time alongside a larger group of investors with expertise in the clean energy sector, to help the company ride its innovative technology to a market-leading position,” Sparkman said.

VCharge also recently appointed Gene Zimon, former CIO of Massachusetts utility Nstar and current president of entrepreneur consulting firm Edge Advisers, to its board of directors.