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Periodic travel to customer data center sites and company headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan is required.
Utilidata digitizes the grid edge with software that runs on a smart grid chip developed with NVIDIA. The company provides software licenses and services to utilities and energy providers to optimize the distribution and management of energy in real time, using data and machine learning to coordinate distributed energy resources. This hardware-software approach helps utilities reduce costs, improve reliability, and enable higher integration of renewable energy. Unlike purely software-only grid tools, Utilidata combines a hardware-accelerated chip with software to run advanced grid-management algorithms at the edge, offering data-driven insights and operational efficiency directly where the energy flows. The company’s goal is to accelerate the adoption of clean energy by making grid operations more flexible, reliable, and capable of handling increased renewable generation and distributed resources.
Company Size
51-200
Company Stage
Series C
Total Funding
$155.3M
Headquarters
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Founded
2012
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Utilidata has rebranded as Karman, adopting the name of its power orchestration platform. The company, which specialises in embedded AI for power infrastructure, made the change to reflect its evolution towards meeting AI data centre needs. The Karman platform, powered by a custom NVIDIA module, combines high-resolution metrology with local processing and AI. According to the company, it increases AI tokens per watt by 50% or more for AI data centres by unlocking stranded power capacity. Karman's first commercial deployment is currently operating with NexGen Cloud in an Enovum data centre in Montreal. The platform embeds directly into power infrastructure to monitor conditions in real-time, delivering visibility and control to data centre operators. The company has expanded its board of directors with Jeff Bladen and Dave Johnson.
The added investment from Renown Capital Partners and Keyframe Capital will enable Utilidata to rapidly execute upon its commercial growth strategy and expand its workforce
Utilidata raises $40 million extension, completing $100M Series C to maximize AI compute capacity. The added investment from Renown Capital Partners and Keyframe Capital will enable Utilidata to rapidly execute upon its commercial growth strategy and expand its workforce. Utilidata, a leader in embedded AI for power infrastructure, announced today that it has secured an additional $40 million in Series C funding. The round was led by existing investor Renown Capital Partners with participation from Keyframe Capital, completing the Series C at $100 million. The extension marks the second and final close of Utilidata's Series C financing, following the company's initial $60.3 million round led by Renown Capital in April 2025, with participation from Keyframe Capital, Quanta Services, and NVIDIA. The funding will strengthen Utilidata's position to scale commercialization with hyperscalers and the data center market. The company's power orchestration platform, Karman, was developed in partnership with NVIDIA, and unlocks stranded capacity with real-time visibility and control of power utilization. Built on a custom NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano module, Karman is designed to be embedded at the rack level of data centers to manage rack power in real time, providing operators with high-speed visibility of power utilization. "The AI infrastructure buildout is one of the defining themes of this decade, but power is a fundamental limitation," said James McIntyre, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Renown Capital Partners. "Karman directly solves that problem by getting more out of the power that is available. We're deepening our commitment to Utilidata because the market need is urgent, the technology is ready, and we are confident that the team has what it takes to deliver." Continued support from investors reflects growing recognition that AI growth depends on solving fundamental infrastructure problems. Power is the binding constraint. Interconnection queues stretch years and the increasing density of GPU compute creates power quality challenges that can push instability back onto the grid. The industry needs solutions that intelligently orchestrate power to maximize the performance of existing infrastructure, unlock stranded capacity, and enable denser deployments without causing issues on the grid. Karman smooths power fluctuations, reducing negative grid impacts that pose regulatory risks to data center interconnection and operations outlined in the recent guidelines from North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). The Series C extension comes ahead of Utilidata's first commercial deployment with NexGen Cloud, which will go live in Montreal next month and target up to 50% additional usable capacity. "We've believed in this team for a long time, and this round reflects our conviction that Karman is the breakthrough technology at exactly the right moment," said John Rapaport, CIO, Keyframe Capital. "AI data centers can't afford to wait for new power capacity. They need to maximize what they have now and that is exactly what Karman delivers." To support Utilidata's next phase of growth, the company is expanding its executive leadership team with the addition of Kit Chee as Chief Commercial Officer. Kit joins the team to lead Utilidata's commercial strategy, having previously scaled Intel's cloud sales from $9B to $23B, secured several hyperscalers at Ampere, and helped shape the growth strategy for an ASEAN neocloud. Along with the addition of Kit, Utilidata is increasing their workforce by 25% this year, many of which are based at their headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a new state-of-the-art 15,000-square-foot innovation lab with funding support from Governor Whitmer. Ann Arbor SPARK supported Utilidata's relocation to Ann Arbor by connecting the company with local resources, office space opportunities, and the region's highly skilled technology talent. "Power availability is the defining constraint for data centers right now," said Josh Brumberger, CEO of Utilidata. "Karman squeezes every watt out of the power you already have, and makes every new megawatt you bring online work smarter. We're commercializing this at exactly the right moment, and we're grateful for the investors who've backed us to do it."
Utilidata in Ann Arbor raises $40M Series C funding to maximize AI compute capacity. Utilidata, a company in Ann Arbor that provides embedded AI for power infrastructure, announced today that it has secured an additional $40 million in Series C funding completing the series at $100 million. The funding will strengthen the company's position to scale commercialization with hyperscalers and the data center market. May 28, 2026 Utilidata, a company in Ann Arbor that provides embedded AI for power infrastructure, announced today that it has secured an additional $40 million in Series C funding completing the series at $100 million. The funding will strengthen the company's position to scale commercialization with hyperscalers and the data center market. The round was led by existing investor Renown Capital Partners with participation from Keyframe Capital. The extension marks the second and final close of Utilidata's Series C financing, following the company's initial $60.3 million round led by Renown Capital in April 2025, with participation from Keyframe Capital, Quanta Services, and NVIDIA. The company's power orchestration platform, Karman, was developed in partnership with NVIDIA, and unlocks stranded capacity with real-time visibility and control of power utilization. Built on a custom NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano module, Karman is designed to be embedded at the rack level of data centers to manage rack power in real time, providing operators with high-speed visibility of power utilization. ADVERTISING "The AI infrastructure buildout is one of the defining themes of this decade, but power is a fundamental limitation," says James McIntyre, co-founder and managing partner of Renown Capital Partners. "Karman directly solves that problem by getting more out of the power that is available. We're deepening our commitment to Utilidata because the market need is urgent, the technology is ready, and we are confident that the team has what it takes to deliver." Continued support from investors reflects growing recognition that AI growth depends on solving fundamental infrastructure problems. Power is the binding constraint, according to Utilidata. Interconnection queues stretch years and the increasing density of GPU compute creates power quality challenges that can push instability back onto the grid, the company says. "Power availability is the defining constraint for data centers right now," says Josh Brumberger, CEO of Utilidata. "Karman squeezes every watt out of the power you already have and makes every new megawatt you bring online work smarter. We're commercializing this at exactly the right moment, and we're grateful for the investors who've backed us to do it." The industry needs solutions that intelligently orchestrate power to maximize the performance of existing infrastructure, unlock stranded capacity, and enable denser deployments without causing issues on the grid, Utilidata says. Its Karman solution is designed to smooth power fluctuations, reducing negative grid impacts that pose regulatory risks to data center interconnection and operations outlined in the recent guidelines from North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC). The Series C extension comes ahead of Utilidata's first commercial deployment with NexGen Cloud, which will go live in Montreal next month and target up to 50 percent additional usable capacity. "We've believed in this team for a long time, and this round reflects our conviction that Karman is the breakthrough technology at exactly the right moment," says John Rapaport, CIO of Keyframe Capital. "AI data centers can't afford to wait for new power capacity. They need to maximize what they have now and that is exactly what Karman delivers." To support Utilidata's next phase of growth, the company is expanding its executive leadership team with the addition of Kit Chee as chief commercial officer. Previously, Chee scaled Intel's cloud sales from $9 billion to $23 billion, secured several hyperscalers at Ampere, and helped shape the growth strategy for an ASEAN neocloud. Along with the addition of Chee, Utilidata is increasing its workforce by 25 percent this year, many of which are based at their headquarters in Ann Arbor, a new state-of-the-art 15,000-square-foot innovation lab.
Utilidata has raised $40 million from Renown Capital Partners and Keyframe Capital, extending its Series C round to $100.3 million. The funding will expand adoption of Karman, a hardware module that optimises data centre power usage. Karman measures server rack energy consumption one million times per second and redirects excess electricity to other areas when usage drops. The module responds to utilisation changes in 20 milliseconds, enabling data centres to maximise existing power capacity rather than purchasing additional supply. Built on Nvidia's Jetson Orion Nano accelerator, Karman can also identify when operators set aside excessive power reserves. Utilidata recently partnered with NextGen Cloud to deploy the technology, aiming to boost usable inference capacity by up to 50%. The module also supports power grid applications, including residential smart metres.