Bill Gates helps Varentec raise $8M to run the decentralized power grid of the future

Power management company Varentec has raised another $8 million — with a little help from Bill Gates.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company wants to decentralize today’s power grids, a reinvention that creates faster, more efficient systems at reduced cost. The latest funding round, which Khosla Ventures led, joins the $7.7 million Series A round it raised last January.

Core to Varentec’s effort is “Edge of Network Grid Optimization” (ENGO), its hardware-software solution that, in real time, monitors and controls the voltage going over systems. The company calls the technology the “eyes, brain, and muscle” of its future decentralized power grid.

Varentc plans to use its latest funding to bring its system to more companies, including public utilities and data centers (latter are notoriously power-hungry).

It’s not the sexiest pitch, all told, but it’s clearly compelling enough to get Bill Gates interested in the effort.