QueueGrid raises $55 million Series B to speed data center interconnection amid AI power crunch
Sofia Reyes ·
QueueGrid, a grid software startup based in Austin, raised a $55 million Series B today to shorten power interconnection timelines for data centers and large energy loads. Eclipse Ventures led the round with participation from DCVC, Congruent Ventures, and NextEra Energy Resources’ venture arm. The company said it will expand in North America and Europe to meet rising demand from AI capacity planners.
The deal lands as interconnection wait times stretch beyond four years in many U.S. markets, and as projected data center electricity demand climbs steeply. The International Energy Agency has estimated that global data center power use could roughly double between 2022 and 2026, with AI inference as a key driver.
QueueGrid builds software that maps substation headroom, forecasts congestion risk, and automates ISO and utility filings. It also offers a managed service that coordinates interim on site generation and storage while projects wait for grid upgrades. The company charges a subscription for software and a fee for managed services.
The company said it supports 18 data center developers and cloud operators and has modeled more than 45 gigawatts of prospective load across PJM, ERCOT, CAISO, and several European TSOs. QueueGrid reported that annual recurring revenue more than tripled in the past year, though it declined to disclose a dollar figure. It plans to open offices in Dublin and Frankfurt in the second half of 2026.
Eclipse partner Greg Reichow said the firm backed QueueGrid because interconnection risk now sets the critical path for AI infrastructure. He said buyers want predictable timelines more than lowest nominal power prices, and that software driven coordination can remove months from studies and permitting. DCVC cited the company’s growing dataset of substation constraints as a defensible asset.
Founders Aria Patel and Samir Kulkarni previously built grid planning tools at a major utility and at a hyperscale cloud provider. They started QueueGrid in 2023 after watching data center siting migrate from fiber first to power first. Patel said the round will fund integrations with more utility planning models and automated generation interconnection studies.
The financing signals that venture dollars are shifting toward revenue bearing infrastructure picks that serve AI indirectly, including power, cooling, and land entitlements. Tuesdays still bunch with rounds, but the clustering now concentrates in companies that smooth physical bottlenecks rather than add another model layer.