SynapSense Corporation continues to attract more high-profile investors to finance its wireless management systems designed to increase the efficiency of cooling systems for data centers after raising $16 million in its third funding round.
The California-based startup offers a wireless monitoring system made up of sensors that can track temperature, pressure, and humidity from data centers in real-time. Using the data, operators can manipulate their cooling systems to be more efficient in response to the computer’s needs.
The system, called SynapSoft, then provides recommendations on how to cut energy use, its expected energy savings and overall return on investment. On average, SynapSense said the system can help save up to 35 percent on energy costs from cooling.
Operators can also view the power usage effectiveness or P.U.E. of a data center in real time, which is said to be a more effective way to show how efficient a data center is. The P.U.E is a ratio showing how much energy a data center uses for actual computing compared with how much is wasted on non-productive tasks like cooling machines or eliminating heat waste.
Peter Van Deventer, chief executive of SynapSense, said proceeds from the round will help the company expand operations and reach customers.
“Strong customer demand validates that real ROI is the core component of the emerging DCIM segment and SynapSense has emerged as the recognized leader,” he added.
The Series C round of financing was led by Crosslink Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Aeris Capital, Emerald Technology Ventures, GE Energy Financial Services, Nth Power and Robert Bosch Venture Capital.
In total, the company has raised $40 million in five funding rounds from eight investors to date. Early stage funders, American River Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson Frontier, along with an undisclosed third investor closed SynapSense’s first $ 2 million round in May 2006.
It was then followed by three funding rounds valued at $10 million, $7 million, and $5 million in September 2007, March 2009, and July 2010 respectively.
SynapSense was founded in March 2006 by former Intel executive Mr. Deventer and Dr. Raju Pandey, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Davis.
Cooling – a hot topic
Data centers are known energy hogs because it needs large amounts of electricity to power its computers and even larger amounts for cooling systems that prevent them to overheat. Because cooling accounts for 50 percent of power costs, according to Hewlett Packard, over-cooling data centers is no longer a practical option.
A report from McKinsey Global Institute last year said the amount of electricity data centers used in the United States from 2009 to 2010 alone was equivalent to the output of 10 new power plants.
The Environmental Protection Agency said that in 2006 data centers consumed 61 billion kilowatt-hours or 1.5 percent of total electricity use of the United States, costing around $4.5 billion in electricity alone.
At that time, the agency predicted it would double by 2011 to more than 100 billion kWh, equal to $7.4 billion in annual electricity cost.
SynapSense said its technology have been used in data centers operated by Fortune 500 companies from Wall Street to Silicon Valley. Based on case studies, the company’s system managed to save 1.8 megawatts of energy in a 65,000 square foot data center in Texas by optimizing how it is cooled.
