$40M for Virtual Power Plant Startup and Battery Backup-As-A-Service | Vinnie Campo, CEO of Haven Energy

How micro power plants at homes are reducing electricity costs and removing power utility bottlenecks.

🎧 Episode Summary

Haven Energy is an energy tech company that deploys distributed energy resources at residential and small C&I sites to build virtual power plants (VPPs) at scale. Through strategic partnerships with utilities, non-profits, EPCs, and government agencies, Haven is helping to lead the rebuild of America’s grid infrastructure.

Prior to founding Haven, CEO Vinnie Campo served as a key leader at Bulb Energy, where he was part of the founding team that launched the U.S. arm of the then-largest renewable energy supplier in the U.K. 

Before that, Vinnie led growth and operations at Uber and launched their e-bike division in Texas. His experience spans strategic operations and product growth, with a consistent emphasis on scaling products and services and on building a vision customers can believe in.

In this podcast, you'll learn about:

• How they raised $40M in December 2025 in a tough capital-raising environment

• How Hurricane Katrina inspired Vinnie to launch this company based on personal experience

• How their residential customers determine the return on investment for these residential installs

• Why backup-as-a-service is key to their model succeeding

• How many states have utilities where this VPP model is attractive

• How do you reduce friction for customers to get the biggest bang for their buck in residential batteries

• Why it's good not to make annual plans and hard things about hard things

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About the host: Dr. Chris Wedding

Climate CEO coach, investor, serial founder, board member, professor, and occasional monk. For more on climate tech startups and leadership, follow frequent posts on LinkedIn:

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