Environmental and Energy Management Software Provider Hara raises funds

Hara, the fastest growing provider of on-demand environmental and energy management software, today announced it has secured $14 Million in Series B funding. JAFCO Ventures led the round, bringing deep experience and strong relationships in the Asian markets, with participation from Nth Power, focused on the growing sector of energy technology, and existing investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). The funding, which brings total investment to date in Hara to $20 Million, will allow Hara to accelerate its global go-to-market and product innovation strategies in response to growing market demand for its environmental and energy management solution.

“We have been very impressed with the team at Hara and the amount of success that they have demonstrated in a very short period of time,” said Tom Mawhinney, General Partner with JAFCO Ventures and new member of Hara’s board. “Our market research indicates that the Hara solution and core competencies are highly relevant in global markets, and we are confident we can help the company as it expands beyond North America and into the Asia markets.”

“Hara offers a unique solution that provides enterprises a holistic way of prioritizing and implementing energy and natural resource conservation strategies,” said Rodrigo Prudencio, Partner, Nth Power. “Having invested in leading energy technologies for more than ten years, Nth Power believes Hara stands ready to enable a new business process that will become standard in energy and resource intensive organizations around the world.”

In keeping with Hara’s commitment to rapid product innovation, this month also marks the latest and third release of Hara’s flagship on-demand solution, the Hara Environmental and Energy Management (EEM) Fall 2009 Release. The new release provides rich and comprehensive functionality for organizations to manage energy and natural resources as an integrated, end-to-end business process. The solution also helps organizations share and leverage best practices across stakeholders, and enables companies across the value chain to adhere to Walmart’s recently introduced supplier sustainability standards.

“Hara’s vision and solution footprint extends far beyond carbon accounting, enabling companies to holistically monitor and manage their natural resource consumption and environmental impact. The company has exceeded our expectations to date, with overwhelmingly positive response from customers and the broader market,” said Ted Schlein, Managing Partner, KPCB. “We firmly believe that Hara will continue to lead the pack in the environmental and energy management space.”

“Hara is seeing strong and accelerating market demand for environmental and energy management solutions, across industries and geographies,” said Amit Chatterjee, CEO and co-founder of Hara. “New investments from JAFCO and Nth Power, with continued support from KPCB, will enable Hara to continue to deliver customer value, maintain our rapid product innovation pace, and accelerate the global growth of our business.”