Massachusetts: Massachusetts based commercial building energy analytics company, FirstFuel secured $10 million in its series A round of funding from RockPort Capital. The round also saw participation from existing investors Nth Power and Battery Ventures. Previously the company had secured $2.4 million in its initial round in September 2011 led by Battery Ventures, Nth Power, and individual investors. The funds would be used for the company’s expansion in the utility and government markets, accelerate the product development efforts to expand the capabilities of its Rapid Building Assessment (RBA) platform.

“The addition of RockPort Capital builds on the strength of our existing investors, bringing together three of the top investment firms in the cleantech market. This financing provides the resources needed to support the rapid adoption of our platform by our growing customer base. More importantly, it helps accelerate our goal of becoming the leading driver of scalable building energy efficiency through mass customer engagement,” says Swapnil Shah, Co-Founder and CEO, FirstFuel Software.

The company was founded in 2010 by Swapnil Shah, Ken Kolkebeck, Nalin Kulatika, and Robert Kaufmann. Prior to co-founding FirstFuel, Shah was the Entrepreneur in Residence at Charles River Ventures and was the Co-Founder of mValent and Founder of Inktomi, where he rose to Vice President and General Manger-Wireless Division. Shah was also the Director-Product Managemetn at Open Environment.

“We’re excited with the progress that FirstFuel has shown over the past year. Their rapidly growing customer base already includes some of the nation’s largest utilities and government agencies. Commercial buildings represent an enormous energy efficiency opportunity around the world and we believe the company can be the undisputed leader in this market,” says Rodrigo Prudencio, Partner at Nth Power.

FirstFuel’s RBA platform helps to remotely benchmark building energy performance, creating rich energy profiles eliminating the need for costly and inconsistent on-site energy assessment. “Non-residential buildings provide a massive opportunity for energy efficiency. After a thorough examination of the market and competitive landscape, we found FirstFuel to be the company best positioned to deliver a highly scalable energy information service. Its technology is unique and beyond anything else we looked at, and they have shown the ability to execute and gain traction,” says Todd Wilson, Partner, RockPort Capital.

Nth Capital is a venture capital firm focused on startups in the energy technology, materials, and other related business. It invests in companies with high growth potential, addressing large market opportunities with a proprietary technology or service meeting significant unmet customer needs. Few of its portfolio investments are Accelergy, BPL Global, Nexant, SmartSynch, SynapSence, and Thetus among others.

RockPort Capital Partners is a venture capital which partners with cleantech entrepreneurs across the globe. It invests across all stages of development, from seed to companies with substantial commercial revenues. Its focus areas are Energy & Power, Resource Effeciency, Transportation, Advanced Materials, and Green Building. The firm invests between $500,000-25 million. Few of its portfolio companies include Acates Power, Eco Factor, Enki Technology, Neo Photonics, Micro Seismic, NanoGram, and Streetline among others.