BlocPower steps forward and secures $25 million Series B to expand its home power upgrade platform

With all the focus on the carbon footprint of shipping and aviation, residential buildings are probably the hardest to downsize. According to a recent study, it takes an average of 130 years for homes to be demolished in the United States.

Unfortunately, houses and apartment buildings built 100 or even 30 years ago are still not ready for the energy transition. In most cases, their major mechanical systems rely on fossil fuels, their electrical systems are substandard, and their walls and windows are leaky and poorly insulated.

All of this can make the home less comfortable and less efficient than it needs to be.

Nearly a decade ago, Donnel Baird realized that paying for upgrades like this could be prohibitively expensive in many cases, as a lump sum payment is required up front. While the benefits could increase over the years, this was a hurdle that many homeowners were unable or unwilling to overcome.

So he founded BlocPower, which has been tackling the problem for nearly a decade, developing a series of projects to test its modernization-as-a-service business model, which targets low-income communities. This week it announced it had raised nearly $25 million in equity and $130 million in debt financing.

The Series B round was led by VoLo Earth Ventures and co-chaired by the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Credit Suisse, Builders Vision, New York State Ventures, Unreasonable Collective, Kimbal and Christiana Musk, Gaingels, Van Jones, Kapor Capital, My Climate Journey, Tale follows Venture Partners and NBA star Russell Westbrook. Debt financing was led by Goldman Sachs.