Bia, a Bogota-based startup pioneering the energy trader sector just raised $6 million in a pre-seed round led by Canary, with participation from Nazca, 8VC, Global Founders Capital (GFC), Marathon Ventures, MatterScale Ventures and Opera Ventures.
Other strategic angel investors back the company, including successful tech executives and entrepreneurs: Rappi founders Simón Borrero, Sebastián Mejía and Felipe Villamarín, Notco founder Matías Munchnick, Valoreo co-founder Stefan Florea, former Tesla product manager Jun Hwang, Frubana founder Fabián Gómez, Chiper co-founder Jair Bonilla, Tul co-founder Enrique Villamarín and Muncher co-founder Juan David Jaramillo.
Bia is an energy trader that will initially focus on businesses in Colombia, offering them smart meters and a consumption analysis platform with real-time analytics. The startup claims to reduce consumption by analyzing data directly from a mobile application and that an average user could save up to 10% on their energy bill each month with these measurements.
Two ex-Rappi and an energy sector executive are behind Bia: Juan Sebastián Ruales, Guillermo Plaza Roche and Leonardo Velásquez.
“Businesses pay the bill for the service they receive without having transparency, data or technology about their consumption,” says Ruales. “There is little empowerment of what is happening with energy.”