JACKSON, MS—SmartSynch, a company selling smart metering technology to the utility industry, has raised $20 million in expansion funding. New investors include Credit Suisse and Souther Farm Bureau Life Insurance Co., and existing investors also participated.

Founded in 2000, SmartSynch has raised a total of $80 million from investors who include Battelle Ventures, Beacon Group, Endeavor Capital Management, GulfSouth Capital, Innovation Valley Partners, Kinetic Ventures, OPG Ventures and Siemens Venture Capital.

It will use this latest round to fund working capital growth and expand market presence, among other purposes.

SmartSynch’s SmartMeters measure how much and when electricity is consumed, which the company says dramatically improves utilities’ ability to understand customer electricity usage. It helps utilities map usage trends to optimize building energy consumption and discover energy leaks.

It also helps utilities reduce their own carbon footprints by eliminating the need to construct, support and service proprietary data networks, instead using existing or emerging public wireless networks, the company says.

SmartSynch solutions are fully certified to securely and reliably deliver critical AMI data on public wireless networks.

“Utilities are deploying smart meter technology at a rapid rate to avoid the difficulty of building and permitting new power plants, to prepare for impending carbon regulation and more importantly because managing electricity use at a granular level opens up new business opportunities with customers,” said Nadim Barakat, a Managing Director in Credit Suisse’s Customized Fund Investment Group.

“We are at the beginning of an unprecedented investment cycle by the utility industry that will result in the widespread adoption of smart metering, demand response and smart grid intelligence solutions,” said Stephen Johnston, CEO of SmartSynch, in a statement.

On the Web: www.smartsynch.com

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