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Enterprise Software Leader FirstFuel Springs into 2019 with Impressive New Customer Wins and Substantial Growth InvestmentFirstFuel Software, the utility industry leader in customer engagement and intelligence, has further cemented its position with the addition of new blue-chip clients and additional financing in 2018, reinforcing its market leading position. The company added several new customers to its roster, including American Electric Power (AEP), Seattle City Light, and Orange (News - Alert) & Rockland. In addition, FirstFuel expanded its existing business with a lineup of leading utility clients including Exelon, ConEdison, and Duquesne Light. FirstFuel's client roster is comprised of five of the ten largest utilities in the U.S. and more than one in every five business customer meters. This year, FirstFuel clients have seen compelling new results by applying the company's artificial intelligence (AI)-based data techniques to customer service and engagement. Accenture's (News - Alert) latest research report, "Serving Small and Medium-size Businesses: Shaping customer experience their way", underscores the importance of the business customer segment, finding that energy engagement-driven techniques show strong correlation to greater digital adoption, product and service adoption, and customer satisfaction. In addition, Accenture and FirstFuel analysis reveals that an average-size regulated energy provider could unlock as much as $10 million to $15 million in net savings over a five-year SMB digital transformation program. FirstFuel has demonstrated the power of delivering insights through its embedded widgets andAPIs to all customer channels, helping drive up to 100x improvement in online engagement using energy management over other techniques. Buoyed by these strong results, FirstFuel's clients are leveraging these new insights to improve customer service and drive adoption of programs, including energy efficiency (EE), electrification, and distributed energy resources (DERs). "Knowing your customer is the key to getting 'right now' results and to navigating the transformation that's happening in the utility industry," said Swapnil Shah, FirstFuel's CEO and co-founder. "We're very proud to continue partnering with our clients to transform their data into customer understanding that delivers tangible business results. " On the back of these exciting results, FirstFuel closed additional funding led by Energy Impact Partners (EIP), the leading utility-backed energy investment and innovation firm, whose investors include utility industry leaders such as Alliant Energy (News - Alert), National Grid, Southern Company and Xcel Energy. FirstFuel will use the additional funding to invest in its platform, expand integrations with industry-leading platforms such as Oracle (News - Alert) and Salesforce, and help its clients continue to drive strong results using AI. "The energy transformation is in full swing, changing the very products and services that have been delivered by utility companies for over 100 years," said Lindsey Luger, Partner at EIP. "FirstFuel has established a dominant market position based on incredible AI technology and seen great results by connecting utilities more closely with their customers. We're proud to continue our partnership and help shape the future of the utility industry." About FirstFuel FirstFuel Software is the global leader in business customer engagement for utilities, using advanced analytics to help energy providers in North America and Europe use deep understanding of their customers to improve business customer satisfaction, drive sales and revenue, and reduce service costs. Combining data science, building science, and software, our business customer engagement SaaS (News - Alert) platform derives intelligence from over 6 million meters, transforming energy providers into trusted advisers to their business customers. Founded in 2010 and privately held, FirstFuel is headquartered in Lexington, MA. For more information about FirstFuel, please visit www.firstfuel.com and follow us on Twitter @FirstFuelSW. About Energy Impact Partners Energy Impact Partners is a strategic private equity firm established in 2015 that invests in innovative technologies, services, and products throughout the energy supply chain from generation to consumption. It provides its strategic partners with critical information helping them plot a path into the future. Through close collaboration with its investor base, EIP seeks to bring the best companies, buying power and vision in the industry to bear on the emerging energy landscape. EIP's utility partners include Southern Company, National Grid, Xcel Energy, Ameren, Great Plains Energy, Fortis Inc., AGL, Avista, MGE Energy Inc., TEPCO, PTT Public Company Limited, OGE Energy Corp., TransCanada, and Alliant Energy. The firm has already deployed over $200 million into advanced energy technology companies. For more information, visit www.energyimpactpartners.com.
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