Boulder’s Odyssey raises $15 million to accelerate overseas expansion

BOULDER — Odyssey Energy Solutions Inc. has raised a $15 million Series A fundraising round that the Boulder-based renewable energy investment platform said “will be used to continue expansion of Odyssey’s key product offerings and expand into new markets, including Latin America and Asia.”

The round was led by Union Square Ventures, with participation from Equal Ventures, Twelve Below, Transition, Equator, MCJ Collective, Abstract Ventures, Founder Collective and Climate Venture Capital, according to a company news release.

Odyssey facilitates financing and development of off-grid distributed energy projects that address rural energy poverty in developing countries.

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Distributed renewable energy, or DRE, comes from sources close to the point of the power’s use — batteries or solar panels, for example — rather than from centralized and often far-away sources such as power plants. 

“Odyssey is at the center of one of the biggest economic and climate opportunities of our lifetimes: the clean energy transition in emerging markets,” Odyssey CEO and co-founder Emily McAteer said in the release. “Not only are aging and weak grids and high fuel costs making renewable energy the best solution for the future, significant policy tailwinds are helping drive change at the global level.” 

Odyssey, winner of the 2020 Keeling Curve Prize, which funds projects that help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, touts as an example of a project successfully funded through the company platform the Nigeria Electrification Project, a $550 million initiative of the Federal Government of Nigeria financed by the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

“By building tools for financiers and renewable energy companies across every stage of development, Odyssey is positioned as the system of record for DRE projects in emerging markets,” Union Square Ventures partner Nick Grossman said in a prepared statement. “Odyssey’s platform streamlines transactions across all stakeholders and presents powerful network efforts that will unlock industry scale.”In addition to the $15 million Series A round, Odyssey raised a $5.34 million round and a $7.22 million round in 2022.