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ProsumerGrid
DefunctTechstars '23Brookhaven, US · 2 known investors
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ProsumerGrid develops Grid+DER Planning Studio, a simulation and optimization platform for managing distributed energy resources and grid planning. The company serves utilities and energy system operators managing grid redesign, hosting capacity, and microgrid implementation.
Also known as ProsumerGrid, Inc.
Founders & leadership
Investors · 2
How we know: the Techstars portfolio · open dataset · Top 3000 Accelerator Startups (no YC) 2026-08 · Not right? Tell us
Company profile
researched Sep 2026ProsumerGrid, Inc. provides decision-support software and analytical services for planning and simulating integrated generation, transmission, distribution and microgrid systems with high penetrations of distributed energy resources (DERs), including flexible industrial, commercial and residential demand, electric vehicles, local generation and combined heat and power, utility- or customer-owned energy storage, and wind and solar. Its product, Grid+DER Planning Studio, simulates modern power systems with large amounts of DERs and includes five modules addressing utility planning issues such as hosting capacity, DER locational value assessment and distribution system operator simulation, the latter providing an environment for studying participant roles, policy rules and energy service exchanges in marketplace design.
The company's stated analytical use cases include optimal long-term capacity planning considering DERs and energy storage, simulation of short-term optimal DER operation, optimization-based DER hosting capacity and locational value analysis, non-wires alternatives analysis, energy storage grid services valuation, and microgrid optimal DER planning. Analyses can weigh multiple scenarios for uncertainty and risk and multiple objectives including cost, resiliency and emissions, while respecting the physical constraints of microgrid, distribution and transmission systems. Customers and users addressed include electric utilities, energy providers, DER companies, regulators and researchers.
Company profiles list ProsumerGrid as founded in 2014, with 1-10 employees (8 reported), offices associated with Brookhaven and Atlanta, Georgia, and a pre-seed/seed stage. A Techstars profile dated October 2025 states the company ceased operations but had not shut down and was likely to pivot into a new business.
Founding story
The company traces to a 2011 Georgia Tech project in which five professors and 20 Ph.D. students received a $2 million grant that carried an agency-required technology commercialization component. Faculty member Dr. Santiago Grijalva asked Marcelo Sandoval, then 26 and with prior industry experience, to lead commercialization; Sandoval enrolled in Georgia Tech's MBA program and the team shifted from pushing a technology to investigating the electric industry's integration challenges, identifying planning and analysis as a key roadblock. The team won a business plan competition in 2014 that awarded $100,000 and refined its model through the NSF I-Corps program in 2015, where interviews with distribution utilities confirmed a lack of simulation and planning decision-support tools.
Business model
ProsumerGrid describes a model based on multi-year software license agreements for the Grid+DER Planning Studio, supplemented by initial technical assistance and training to build and validate client databases, assistance running client use cases, and additional analytical or consulting services for extra fees. The company stated it planned to license the Studio, once running on AWS or another cloud platform, at an average of about $250,000 per year per client while continuing consulting projects.
Revenue comes from analytical and consulting services delivered with the Planning Studio and, prospectively, from multi-year software licenses priced at an average of roughly $250,000 per year. The company reported having generated over $3 million in revenue to date from analytical and consulting services for clients.
Traction
ProsumerGrid reported more than $3 million in cumulative revenue from analytical and consulting engagements and a built, working Planning Studio with five modules used to deliver client projects. Cited engagements include grid redesign of Puerto Rico for PREPA-related work with the DOE, an EV hub study in California for a large EV company, feasibility and optimal grid siting of energy storage for Southern Company/EPRI, and a 10-year integrated EV and DER forecast and distribution impact assessment for Avangrid's Binghamton District. It reported conversations with 100 utilities yielding 8-10 prospective pilots, a pilot contract with Burlington Electric Department via DeltaClimeVT, and pilot-stage deployment of the software.
Latest developments
An October 2025 note on the company's Techstars profile states that ProsumerGrid ceased operations but had not shut down and would likely pivot into a new business. Prior to that, the company was seeking $500,000 to $1,000,000 and a strategic partner to complete commercialization, either outsourcing or hiring software engineers to finish deploying the Planning Studio on AWS or another cloud platform and to fund a targeted marketing campaign.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
The company positions Grid+DER Planning Studio as a comprehensive planning tool for electric utilities, with its founders stating they are unaware of a comparable comprehensive product, and notes that traditional integrated resource planning for bulk power, transmission and distribution utilities is being challenged by new technologies and load growth driven by data centers and AI. An investor database categorizes its main product as energy software with global geographic exposure.
The founders attribute differentiation to the combined utility-industry and research experience of the team and to the breadth of the Planning Studio, which they describe as more comprehensive than existing tools and as the only comprehensive planning software of its kind they are aware of, covering transmission, distribution, microgrid and behind-the-meter customer resources within a single optimization and simulation environment.
Technology
Grid+DER Planning Studio uses optimization algorithms and advanced simulation to produce high-fidelity simulations of DER-optimized distribution system operations, combining distribution and customer-grid physics with DER models and artificial intelligence and machine learning planning algorithms. The company frames the technical difficulty as modeling three-phase, unbalanced, nonlinear distribution circuits with hundreds of nodes, thousands of circuits per utility, and potentially millions of individual DERs, since bulk-power tools such as optimal power flow, unit commitment and production costing have no distribution- or behind-the-meter equivalents. The company self-assessed the platform at Technology Readiness Level 8 and Commercialization Readiness Level 4.
Go-to-market
The company identified its primary market as the 2,000-plus U.S. distribution utilities (investor-owned, municipal and cooperative), followed by independent power producers and renewable energy project developers, and pursued direct marketing on the basis that these buyers are individually identifiable. It participated in industry trade shows, notably DistribuTECH, and planned to recruit utility pilots once the Planning Studio was available on AWS; it reported speaking with 100 utilities, of which 8 to 10 expressed interest in a pilot.
Electric utilities (investor-owned, municipal and cooperative distribution utilities), energy providers, distributed energy resource companies, independent power producers and renewable project developers, regulators, and researchers; an investor profile characterizes customers as enterprise and government.
Geography
Listings place the company in Brookhaven, Georgia and Atlanta, Georgia, with one investor profile listing Brookhaven, MS; it is affiliated with the Georgia Institute of Technology. Project work spans U.S. regions including Puerto Rico, California, New York (Binghamton, New York Smart Grid Consortium), Vermont and the Southeast, and one profile describes its geographic exposure as global.
History
Originating from a 2011 Georgia Tech research project, the company was formed in 2014 and refined its customer discovery through NSF I-Corps in 2015. A DOE ARPA-E project let the team work with Southern California Edison, the New York Smart Grid Consortium, Avangrid, National Grid and ten electric membership cooperatives to define requirements for modeling the energy transition, leading to the design and build of Grid+DER Planning Studio. The company took part in Techstars Chicago in 2023, won the Duke Energy Innovation Company of the Year award in 2023 and the DeltaClimeVT Energy 2023 accelerator, and by October 2025 was reported to have ceased operations while considering a pivot.
Risks & controversies
The Planning Studio had not been completed for cloud-based client access, leaving the company dependent on consulting revenue and on raising $500,000-$1,000,000 to finish commercialization, with a self-assessed commercialization readiness level of 4 against technology readiness level 8. A Techstars profile dated October 2025 reports that the company ceased operations and would likely pivot.
Compiled by commissioned research from 6 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 10
launches, deals, and filingsA Techstars company profile note dated 2025-10-08 states that ProsumerGrid ceased operations but is not shutting down yet and will likely pivot into a new business.
The company reports receiving a 76West Clean Energy Award from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
The company reports receiving a DOE ARPA-E grant of $3.4 million; the ARPA-E project involved work with Southern California Edison, the New York Smart Grid Consortium, Avangrid, National Grid and ten electric membership cooperatives to define requirements for modeling the energy transition.
$3.4M source ↗
ProsumerGrid was selected first place as Duke Energy Innovation Company of the Year in 2023.
Selected by peer review as winner of the DeltaClimeVT Energy 2023 climate economy business accelerator, receiving $25,000 and a pilot contract with Burlington Electric Department after a three-month hybrid curriculum.
$25K source ↗
An investor profile lists ProsumerGrid in the Techstars Chicago 2023 accelerator cohort.
Awarded a pilot contract with Burlington Electric Department as part of the DeltaClimeVT Energy 2023 accelerator.
Co-founder and CEO Marcelo Sandoval was named to the Forbes Next 1000 list in late 2021.
The team refined its business model and value proposition through the National Science Foundation I-Corps program in 2015.
The team entered and won a business plan competition in 2014 that awarded $100,000.
$100K source ↗
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 6
primary sources listed
- ProsumerGridprosumergrid.com · web
6 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does ProsumerGrid do?
- ProsumerGrid builds Grid+DER Planning Studio, planning and simulation software for distributed energy resources on the electric grid.
- Who founded ProsumerGrid?
- ProsumerGrid was founded by Dr. Santiago Grijalva, Dr. Marcelo Sandoval, John Higley.
- Who are ProsumerGrid's investors?
- ProsumerGrid's investors include Gurtin Ventures, Techstars.
- Where is ProsumerGrid headquartered?
- ProsumerGrid is headquartered in Brookhaven, US.