NRN secures $67m in one of Australia's largest climate tech Series A deals

NRN to scale distributed energy platform ahead of VPP boom  

SYDNEY, Aug. 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- NRN (National Renewable Network), Australia's leading distributed energy infrastructure platform, has finalised a $67.2 million Series A funding round, one of the largest ever in Australian climate tech. The raise includes equity and debt, with major support from a superannuation-linked fund.

NRN enables energy retailers like Alinta Energy (an NRN-partner retailer) to offer customers solar and battery systems with no upfront costs, repayments, or system maintenance fees. With NRN, retailers can quickly build a distributed renewable energy portfolio and white-label it as their own Virtual Power Plant plan.  

This significant capital raise, comprising both equity and debt, is backed by some of Australia's premier climate technology investors, led by Investible, Virescent Ventures, Electrifi Ventures, Ecotone Partners' newly established Planet Fund, and a major debt commitment from Infradebt managed funds (including the Australian Ethical Infrastructure Debt Fund). Throughout the raise, Neu Capital has been acting as NRN's debt advisor.

The Series A also coincides with a massive surge in interest in solar, battery, and VPP plans in Australia, with major government incentives for homeowners who install renewable energy.

"Millions of Australian homeowners want solar but the costs are prohibitive, and every energy retailer wants to scale up their solar energy generation" said Alan Hunter, CEO and Founder of NRN. "Our platform integrates tech, data, capital, compliance, and market access, to neatly solve the problem at both ends. For customers, it's access to solar with no upfront fees. For energy retailers, NRN can instantly establish or scale distributed energy businesses without capital-intensive balance sheet burdens, while maintaining complete ownership of the customer experience. Our unique model is intentionally structured around empowering partners, never competing with them." 

In the past 24 months, NRN has expanded its network by more than 600 per cent, with over $12 million in renewable energy assets under management and nearly 10 megawatt hours of installed battery capacity. With total funding now exceeding $85 million, the company is positioned as Australia's trusted, data-driven distributed energy platform. NRN expects to deploy an additional 40 megawatt hours of battery storage over the next 12 months.

NRN's model allows partners to offer solar and battery systems to households with no upfront costs, no hidden fees, no repayments, and no ongoing system maintenance. This removes the financial barriers for families and enables energy retailers and solar providers to rapidly grow their portfolios without capital exposure.

With this new funding, NRN will accelerate the rollout of its national platform and continue expanding its role as the connective layer between industry, government, and regulators. The company is focused on enabling widespread access to renewables, strengthening partner businesses, and delivering meaningful consumer savings.

With more than 4 million rooftop solar systems now installed across Australia, our energy market has fundamentally changed. Each system acts like a mini power plant, pushing energy back into the grid unmanaged, causing volatility in the market, unless all assets are connected into a VPP. But this decentralised boom, while good for renewables, has also triggered rising energy prices and market volatility, as energy retailers grapple with shrinking demand and shifting supply.

NRN was built to solve this. By operating as an independent infrastructure layer between the solar industry and energy retailers, NRN helps stabilise the grid, lower costs for households, and deliver solar and battery systems with no upfront payment, unlocking clean energy for those who can't afford to fork out tens of thousands to go it alone.

Investor Quotes:

"This Series A marks Investible's third investment in NRN since leading their seed round in March 2024," said Ben Lindsay, Investment Principal at Investible. "This latest raise represents the largest investment from our fund to date, underscoring the conviction we've built in the team, the model, and the scale of the opportunity. In just over 18 months, NRN has grown its network by more than 505% by solving one of the toughest challenges in energy: making clean energy accessible and affordable for households. We're thrilled to welcome our co-lead, Virescent, and other exceptional investors to the cap table. NRN is building both a company and a category with global potential, and we're proud to be on the journey with them."

"Virescent Ventures is proud to support NRN in its Series A. Alan and the NRN team have built a smart, scalable solution to one of the most pressing challenges facing Australia's energy transition – grid stability," said Blair Pritchard, Partner at Virescent Ventures. "Australia's transition to renewables has reached a critical moment – without the rapid deployment of battery storage and distributed generation technology, the energy transition will stall. NRN's business model and technology can help address this by rapidly unlocking additional storage capacity, while democratising access to solar and battery technology. It will help more households benefit from renewable energy and battery technology without the upfront costs, while helping retailers and easing pressure on the grid. NRN presents a smart solution for consumers and the energy market, and a big step forward in decarbonising the electricity grid."

"Infradebt is pleased to provide a bespoke debt financing solution to support the rapid growth of the NRN platform," said Chin-Lee Yu, Co-Founder at Infradebt. "The build out of residential battery storage and VPPs will be a key next step in the energy transition."

"NRN exemplifies the kind of business the Planet Fund is designed to support, where access to cost-effective capital is critical to achieving scale and reducing emissions," said Amanda Goodman, Partner, Planet Fund. "Its innovative business model, which requires both equity and non-dilutive debt to scale, aligns with our thesis of deploying flexible capital to accelerate climate solutions and help people save money. We're particularly excited by NRN's potential to drive meaningful household decarbonisation and contribute to lower energy emissions intensity."
"We're proud to have supported this pivotal transaction, which positions the company to scale its operations and accelerate its Series A equity raise," said Jason Watts, Managing Director, Neu Capital. "This debt raise highlights the depth of investor appetite for high-quality opportunities in the energy transition sector."

"I'm thrilled to be backing NRN for the third time through Electrifi Ventures, as well as several times personally. It's been amazing to watch their journey, and this raise gives them the runway to truly take off — accessing capital at an incredibly efficient rate and having successfully bridged the valley of death that so many startups face. I'm proud to be part of helping get businesses like this off the ground," said Danin Kahn, Electrifi Ventures.

About NRN
NRN is an Australian renewable energy company reshaping how households access solar and battery systems. Specialising in Virtual Power Plants, NRN makes clean energy affordable and accessible. Recent partnerships with Alinta Energy and Jacana Energy highlight NRN's ability to deliver innovative, scalable energy solutions across the country.