Pylon, Egypt’s utility management platform transforming water and electricity companies has raised $19 million in seed funding. The round was made up of debt and equity.
This latest funding will enable Pylon to expand into emerging markets in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America. The funds will also be tilted towards developing its product features as Pylon aims to triple its current user base of 1 million by 2023.
Participating in the fundraising were Y Combinator, Endure Capital, Cathexis Ventures, Khwarizmi Ventures, LoftyInc Capital Management and various high profile global investors.
Founded in 2017 by Ahmed Ashour and Omar Radi and is currently operational in Egypt and the Philippines. Pylon uses the model of telecom companies thus allowing only subscribed users access utility infrastructures. Its Smart metering as a Service (SmaaS) has adapted this model for electricity and water companies in emerging markets.
Pylon has a losses-reduction solution that enables utilities to eliminate inefficiencies and allow for sustainable distribution and utilization of water and energy.
The YC-backed startup aggregates AI and smart technology to reduce load, detect water and energy theft through sophisticated analytics engines and gauge the bleeding utility sector. The startup also uses its software to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions in the ecosystem. According to the company, Pylons smart network is aiming to reduce network losses and collect wasted revenues amounting to billions of dollars annually.
Pylon’s mobile app and web portal enable end consumers to keep track of their consumption, provide real-time insights and allow for ease of payment with integration with multiple payment gateways.
Pylon has successfully deployed its solution in 15+ projects with over 1 million metering points in Africa and Asia.
According to Ahmed Ashour, Pylon’s CEO, “we believe big time in our role in helping the environment and helping with the challenges that we are currently facing.”
Ashour added that “emissions coming from the electricity sector is one of the biggest sources of Carbon dioxide emissions on the planet. We are able to make electricity efficient and reduce [emissions] by 25% when utilities subscribe with us.”
One of its goals is to achieve 1 gigaton of total emissions reduction by 2035. On the other hand, water losses in emerging markets also reach over 45 million cubic meters per day. Pylon claims it can salvage this loss by 22% difference, subsequently providing enough water to serve over 40 million people.
