Energize Capital is proud to participate in the $10M seed financing for GridStrong, the unified platform for electric grid compliance and operations. Congruent Ventures led the round, with participation from strategic utility investors, including ENGIE. Energize Principal Ana Hugener will join the board as an observer. This marks Energize’s first investment in the grid compliance space, an ecosystem we have tracked closely for years, and builds on our prior investments in grid software and cybersecurity.
The U.S. electric grid is undergoing the most rapid transformation in its history. What was once a relatively simple system of centralized coal and gas plants is now a vast, complex network of utility-scale solar, wind, batteries, data centers, and new forms of large-scale load. Alongside this transition, grid operators and regulators are introducing new technical requirements at an unprecedented pace.
For owners and operators of these assets, staying compliant is no longer a back-office exercise; it’s mission-critical. A single grid-connected solar plant in ERCOT, for example, must comply with 80–120 unique requirements spanning development, interconnection, and operations, with obligations recurring in real time, annually, and every few years.
The costs of failure are rising. Since 2007, FERC has levied nearly $900 million in penalties for noncompliance, including $46 million across 55 violations in 2024 alone. Individual fines can exceed $1 million per day, per violation, and major utilities like Duke Energy and PacifiCorp have faced multi-million-dollar penalties in recent years1.
Beyond fines, compliance is inherently cyclical and resource-intensive. Requirements must be re-confirmed whenever plant firmware changes, outages occur, or audits are triggered—meaning even well-run portfolios face a constant cycle of reporting, verification, and re-certification. Yet, grid compliance today is still dominated by manual spreadsheets and consultant-heavy workflows that weren’t designed for a dynamic, distributed grid.
The result is rising costs, shrinking margins for error, and a growing risk that outdated processes will slow the deployment of energy assets at a time when grid expansion and reliability are most critical.
Founded in February 2025, GridStrong is building the unified platform for electric grid operations, simulation, and compliance. In just months, the company has already secured more than half of the top 25 renewable asset owners as customers – including Invenergy, Orsted, AES, ENGIE, Southern Company, and NextEra—and manages over 30 GW of power on its platform.
The company combines deep energy, regulatory, and compliance expertise with modern software to replace fragmented systems and manual processes. By connecting plant data directly into intelligent workflows, GridStrong enables asset owners to automate compliance testing and reporting, reduce dependence on expensive consultants, and gain real-time visibility into the compliance status of entire portfolios. In turn, the platform helps accelerate interconnection and ongoing certification—keeping assets online and revenue flowing—while also reducing the costly fees and penalties that come with noncompliance.
At Energize, we invest in digital solutions that accelerate renewable deployment and improve grid reliability. Compliance sits at the intersection of both. Without confidence in asset reliability, developers can’t bring projects online, and operators can’t keep them running. This investment results from Energize’s deep research into grid technology and compliance, building on our investments in grid software (Nira Energy), cybersecurity (Nozomi Networks), and more.
GridStrong’s founding team brings together a rare combination of entrepreneurial experience, regulatory expertise, and software talent. CEO Tom Scaramellino is a multi-time founder who previously scaled an energy software business acquired by C3.ai, where he went on to lead the company’s AI utility software division. Meanwhile, President and Chief Engineer Ryan Quint brings a deep energy and engineering background, including nine years at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), where he helped write many of the very standards GridStrong now automates.
Together, Tom and Ryan have created a company that marries technical credibility with entrepreneurial agility. Their deep relationships in the industry and firsthand experience with the compliance burden give them a unique perspective on the problem. It’s this blend of regulatory know-how and software vision that has allowed GridStrong to win the trust of blue-chip customers only months after its founding.
With this new capital, the company will continue to invest in product, including expanding platform AI capabilities, developing additional compliance modules across regulating bodies, and further building integrations across asset data systems.
At Energize, we’re excited to support the GridStrong team as they scale. By streamlining compliance and enabling a faster, more reliable grid, GridStrong is helping unlock the next wave of renewable deployment, bringing us closer to a cleaner, more resilient energy future.
1) Source: FERC, NERC, CERTREC, IT Governance
