More and more companies these days are trying to measure their environmental impact, and that is good business for startups like Hara, which provides Web-based environmental impact and energy monitoring software. Hara raised $14 million in a Series B funding today. The round was led by Jafco Ventures, with Nth Power and Kleiner participating.
Hara was founded a year ago with a $6 million investment from Kleiner Perkins. Its software provides a way to measure a company’s carbon footprint and energy usage. The software-as-a-service then produces reports which can be audited. As more and more companies and governments introduce carbon emission policies and regulations, the need for such software will grow.
Customers include Coca-Cola, the City of Palo Alto, and various multinational corporations. The new funds will be partly used to expand into Asia, which makes sense since environmental monitoring only works if you do it on a global basis.
Very good to see. This is similar to the rationale behind Google’s PowerMeter – a tool for measuring home electricity consumption. They believe that if you can’t measure something you can’t improve it, or at least, measuring your environmental impact is the first step towards being able to do something about it.
Good Stuff
We’ve actually just did an overview of Google PowerMeter on our site if anyone is interested. It is nearing public release:
http://www.plen...r-energy-usage/
Thanks,
Brendan
PlentyWays.com
We’ve actually just did an overview of Google PowerMeter on our site if anyone is interested. It is nearing public release:
http://www.plen...r-energy-usage/
Thanks
Brendan
PlentyWays.com
Quick Trivia: “Hara” means “green” in Hindi:
http://www.goog...mp;ct=result#hi|en|%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE
This is also reminiscent of ‘The Owl’ which applies similar principles in a household consumer product:
http://LovelyCo.../01/28/the-owl/
testing for twitter connect api
We’re doing this for individuals @ http://brighterplanet.com. Would love to see how individuals and businesses could connect using carbon footprints as a conversation starter.