March 3 (Reuters) – Opower Inc, which provides software to
utilities to help customers reduce their power bills, said it
will raise $100 million in an initial public offering of its
common stock.
Opower had filed confidentially for an IPO with U.S.
financial regulators earlier this month under the Jumpstart Our
Business Startups Act, which allows companies with less than $1
billion in annual revenue to start the IPO process without
disclosing their finances.
News of the Arlington, Virginia-based company filing
confidentially was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The $2.2 trillion utility industry in under pressure from
regulators to build fewer power plants, find cleaner sources of
fuel and keep rates low, and to accomplish these demands,
utility companies implement energy efficiency programs, that
reduce overall and peak usage.
Opower partners with utilities to help homeowners reduce
energy use by first comparing their energy consumption with that
of their neighbor’s and then providing personalized energy
saving recommendations.
Opower, founded in 2007, said it has helped save more than
1,900 gigawatt hours of energy last year, which equated to
$234.1 million in savings at average electricity prices in the
United States.
Opower’s revenue jumped 72 percent to $88.7 million in the
year ended Dec. 31, 2013. Its net loss widened to $14.1 million
from $12.3 million a year ago, according to a filing with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. ()
The company had 93 utility customers in eight countries,
including 27 of the 50 largest U.S. utilities, as of Dec. 31.
Opower is backed by venture capital firm New Enterprise
Associates, which owns about 22 percent of the company. It is
also backed by Accel Partners.
The company plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange
under the symbol “OPWR”.
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are the lead underwriters
to the offering, Opower said.
The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its
first IPO filings is used to calculate registration fees. The
final size of the IPO could be different.
