NEW YORK — BlocPower, a climate technology company focused on greening America’s buildings, has raised $150 million, including over $24 million of Series B corporate equity led by VoLo Earth Ventures and $130 million of debt financing led by Goldman Sachs. Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Credit Suisse, Builders Vision, New York State Ventures, Unreasonable Collective, Kimbal and Christiana Musk, Gaingels, Van Jones, Kapor Capital, My Climate Journey, Tale Venture Partners, and NBA superstar and entrepreneur Russell Westbrook also joined the equity round. To date, BlocPower has raised over $250 million of capital to finance building decarbonization in low income communities.
The investment round will drive BlocPower’s mission by expanding heat pump and building electrification programs across the U.S. BlocPower will further develop its highly differentiated, proprietary BlocMaps SaaS analytics platform; grow its financing and administrative capabilities; and broaden its Civilian Climate Corps green workforce initiative, focused on training and hiring at-risk individuals in vulnerable communities. Notably, the round comes at a time when Black startup founders in the United States raised just 1% of VC funds last year—an estimated $2.25 billion out of $215.9 billion—nearly half of what they raised in 2021 ($4.34 billion).
“Since 2014, BlocPower has focused on decarbonizing America’s urban core, developing the green economy’s workforce, and bringing climate justice to underserved and vulnerable communities. We are fighting the climate crisis while improving quality of life for city residents. Series B equity and working capital financing from Goldman Sachs will allow us to accelerate building decarbonization across America. We will help low-to-moderate income communities to access the benefits of President Biden’s once in a lifetime green economy investments,” said Donnel Baird, CEO and founder of BlocPower.
Since its 2020 Series A, BlocPower has reported 4,000% revenue growth, including signing city-scale decarbonization projects in Ithaca, NY and Menlo Park, CA, and large-scale projects in Denver, CO; San Jose, CA; Buffalo, NY; Denver, CO; Atlanta, GA; and San Luis Obispo, CA. The company completed hundreds of green energy upgrades across the country, bringing the total number of completed projects to more than 5,000 apartments, homes, houses of worship and commercial buildings. BlocPower has also added several new American geographies to BlocMaps, which is now being used by municipalities and utilities in New York City, Ithaca, San Luis Obispo, Chicago and other cities to develop and implement equitable, data-driven decarbonization strategies.
In 2022, BlocPower’s Civilian Climate Corps was awarded a two-year, $108 million contract from New York City Mayor Eric Adams to train 3,000 city residents for clean energy jobs and to help reduce gun violence as part of Mayor Eric Adams’ Precision Employment Initiative. The new contract expanded upon a $37 million contract from 2021, which launched the NYC Civilian Climate Corps. To support that growth, BlocPower opened two new training facilities in Brooklyn and the Bronx, and raised $130 million of debt from Goldman Sachs. The program trains next generation green economy workforce from communities with a high risk of gun violence, focusing on the use of cutting edge software to install clean energy hardware.
“BlocPower has proven that the right combination of technology, finance, industry know-how and determination can help tackle some of the world’s most difficult challenges, and we are excited to support the company as it embarks on its next phase of expansion,” said Kareem Dabbagh, Managing Partner at VoLo Earth, who will be joining BlocPower’s Board of Directors. “At VoLo Earth, we dig deep to source companies with the right combination of technology, scalability, climate and social impact, winning economics, and tremendous long-term growth potential. BlocPower is emblematic of this mix, and we look forward to leveraging our operational expertise to help contribute to the company’s future success.”
