Loci Controls, Somerville, Massachusetts, a startup that has developed a line of smart wellheads for the extraction of methane from landfills, recently closed a round of Series A funding. This funding was led by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) and includes investments from the CommonAngels Venture Fund, Launch Capital as well as several prominent “angels” in the Boston area.
Tibor Toth, MassCEC’s Managing Director of Investments says, “Loci Controls’ cutting-edge technology provides the dual advantage of preventing the release of harmful greenhouse gases, while creating clean energy at the same time. MassCEC is proud to partner with Loci Controls on this exciting effort.”
This funding round will remain open to additional investments for another month; interested investors should reach out to [email protected] for further information.
This is the second round of funding raised by Loci Controls, the initial seed round closed in March 2014. The seed stage funding, led by Common Angels Venture Fund, allowed Loci to develop prototypes of their product, reinforce their value proposition and begin commercialization of their services. This latest round of capital will allow Loci to further the commercialization of the company’s line of WellWatcher products, used for automating and optimizing the harvesting of methane from landfills.
Methane gas is generated as the organic waste in a landfill decomposes, and the gas is collected with a vacuum extraction system. The collected gas can then be processed and used as Compressed Natural Gas, a gasoline alternative, Fuel sold directly to an end user, or most commonly, Fuel to generate electricity, which can be used on site or sold to the grid. Loci Controls develops control hardware and software to monitor the gas characteristics and optimize the performance of the gas extraction system, resulting in an increase in energy related revenues and a decrease in emissions.
Loci has three devices in their line of smart wellheads; The Controller, Sentry and Guardian. Each device is able to continuously monitor the extraction pressure, temperature and the oxygen content of the collected landfill gas, allowing users to monitor gas production in real time. This information is required to ensure the gas capture and collection system (GCCS) is being operated effectively and efficiently. The Sentry and Controller devices have additional monitoring and control capabilities that allow the WellWatcher system to optimize energy production from the well field.
With this latest round of funding, Loci will continue to develop its line of WellWatcher devices, build out its manufacturing and sales capabilities, and expand their suite of landfill gas optimization models and algorithms. Loci founder and CEO, Andrew Campanella, says of this latest round, “This is an exciting time for the company. This new round of funding will allow us to build on the success following our seed round and further development of our gas optimization service lines”.
Founded by two MIT alumni, Andrew Campanella and Melinda Hale, Loci Controls was initially funded and incubated at Bolt (www.bolt.io), a Venture Capital fund in Boston that invests capital, personnel, equipment, and expertise in hardware startups. Bolt provides access to a high-end prototyping shop, support from a full-time engineering/design staff, and assistance with manufacturing/commercialization and early stage capital.
