Clean tech startup Choose Energy grabs $4M from Kleiner Perkins

While the options for clean energy are growing for U.S. consumers, it’s not always easy to see what your options are, which is something clean tech startup Choose Energy is focused on.

Today Choose Energy announced it’s closed a new $4 million round of funding to help advance its web service that enables consumers to compare prices for all the retail electricity plans available in the area, educate on each type of energy, and enroll them into a plan. The goal is for people to find more affordable power services while ensuring that your home or business is using a green source of energy. (And I’m sure some people would even be OK with getting a higher monthly bill if they knew the power was coming from a renewable source, such as like wind and solar energy.) The company said about 40 percent of its customers choose green energy plans.

“Ten years after deregulation, we’re still experiencing a huge communications gap between the consumers of energy and retail energy providers,” said Choose Energy CEO Jerry Dyess in a statement. “Our goal is to bring transparency to the complex decisions consumers face when choosing a new energy plan in deregulated states.”

The new round of funding, Choose Energy’s first, came from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and Stephens Capital Partners. The startup plans to use the new capital,  to further grow the company, advance its energy comparison service, and focus on building enterprise-level services for retail energy companies.

Founded in 2008, Plano, Tex.-based Choose Energy Inc. is currently available in Texas, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, but the startup has plans to enter all 19 states that allow deregulated energy companies to operate as well as 22 states that have implemented deregulation of natural gas.

Energy diagram from Choose Energy