Isramart : News Corp. Picks Hara for Carbon Accounting

Isramart news:
Hara, the carbon and energy accounting software that’s landed such clients as Coca-Cola and the cities of Palo Alto and San Jose, has gained another big client – Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Hara will provide its Environmental and Energy Management platform to help the media giant measure and analyze energy and emissions information from hundreds of facilities around the world, the two announced Thursday.

Chalk it up as another big win for the two year old, Menlo Park, Calif.-based startup, which came out of stealth mode in May with news that it had raised $6 million from VC powerhouse Kleiner Perkins, Caufield & Byers (see Energy Management Startup Hara Lands Coke as Client, $6M From Kleiner).

Since then, Hara has added $14 million to its war chest with a Series B financing including Kleiner and new investors JAFCO Ventures and Nth Power (see Hara Grabs $14M, Seeks International Markets).

Hara is one of the best-funded startups competing in the nascent, but primed-for-growth business of carbon and energy accounting software. Others include CarbonFlow, Planet Metrics, Carbonetworks and CSRWare (see Carbon Accounting: It’s All About Appearances).

Analysts say these startups will need deep pockets to compete against enterprise software giants such as SAP and CA that are entering the field – some by purchasing startups of their own – as well as others with a long history of helping companies manage energy and environmental data (see Giants vs. Startups: SAP Stakes Carbon Accounting Claim).

Hara and News Corp. did not disclose financial terms of the deal announced Thursday. But News Corp. has set a goal of making all its business units carbon neutral by next year – down from 641,150 tons of carbon dioxide equivalents it emitted in the 52 countries in which it operated in 2006 – so it looks like Hara will have its work cut out for it.