SCI slam dunks Series B

The General Electric Building, New York City

Scientific Conservation Inc. (SCI) announced Thursday it locked in funding from GE (NYSE: GE) and Triangle Peak Partners to close its Series B funding at over $19 million.

In addition to GE's investment, and as part of its GE ecomagination Challenge, GE Capital Real Estate plans to deploy SCI's energy analytics platform in several commercial buildings in the United States, Canada, and the U.K.

The GE funding spawned from its GE Energy Financial Services unit. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. Ricardo Angel, a senior vice president at GE Energy Financial Services, and Michael Morgan, CEO of Triangle Peak Partners, will serve on SCI's board of directors as “observers.”

It was a big week of business for San Francisco-based SCI. The company also announced on Thursday a global strategic alliance with Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) to improve energy use in large campuses, optimize data center cooling, and collaborate on technologies to improve the energy efficiency of its IT-intensive workspaces. As part of that alliance, Intel Capital acquired an investment instrument in SCI.

SCI's technology, SCIwatch, interfaces remotely with commercial building automation systems to analyze energy consumption.The technology also offers automated fault detection and predictive maintenance, enabling ongoing commissioning of a building.

The company touts benefits including reduced energy usage, lower maintenance costs, and a consistent platform that supports a wide variety of energy-efficiency programs. Building energy usage accounts for about 40 percent of all energy consumed in the United States.