AUSTRALIA IN THE DRIVING SEAT
“ Redback is innovating to reduce fossil fuel usage and ensure cleaner energy for future generations ; we ’ re building infrastructure for the future , placing the power in the hands of the individuals who generate it and giving them control over how it is used ”
– Philip Livingston , founder and Managing Director , Redback Technologies
in making partnerships that are not effective , that don ’ t result in growth – and that can be detrimental , even deadly , for startups .”
The company was named after the venomous spider , “ because it lives on a web ”, reveals Livingston . “ So does our technology , and it ’ s quite a disruptive , poisonous spider – and that ’ s how we want to be thought of when engaging with utilities that are not thinking about the future .”
He admits it ’ s been “ stressful ” along the way trying to achieve significant growth and at the same time having runways of capital that must be maintained , but Redback ’ s managed it .
In the last round of funding in October 2017 , it secured AU $ 9mn ( US $ 7.08mn ) from Energy Finance Corporation and Right Click Capital . “ Between that and our revenues , we ’ re set up for success ,” he claims . “ We ’ ve acquired a lengthy runway to start building very next level technology that allows us to really scale the company . We ’ re really excited about it . “ There will be a significant degree of data scientists and developers coming on board to add to our existing team of approximately 45 developers ,” he adds . “ It ’ s a real groundswell of technology development in the form of software intelligence functions for consumers , allowing us to do a whole range of different energy and nonenergy services , which is the next step in our evolution .”
AUSTRALIA IN THE DRIVING SEAT
Redback ’ s R & D focus is to look towards investing in technologies that allow for platform development , but also engaging in relationships and partnerships that allows it to think outside of the box
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