Paces
Paces is an AI software and services company that accelerates US energy infrastructure development for power developers, data center developers, and utilities through autonomous AI agents, GIS-based software, and expert-validated reports.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2022
- HeadquartersBrooklyn, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Paces does
Paces (legal entity: Paces AI Inc.) is a Brooklyn, NY-based software and services company founded in 2022 by James McWalter and Charles Bai that accelerates energy infrastructure development using AI. It serves power developers (solar, battery storage, hydrogen, geothermal, nuclear), data center developers, utilities, and powered-land developers across the United States, addressing the structural problem that roughly 80% of renewable energy projects stall before construction due to sequential, manual, and siloed site origination and diligence workflows.
The core platform is an AI-enhanced GIS and data stack aggregating hundreds of geospatial, relational, and textual datasets across power, permitting, environmental, critical infrastructure, and community-sentiment dimensions. Its product surface comprises three layers: (1) Paces Agent, an autonomous AI that executes end-to-end power development workflows from siting through diligence and permit/interconnection submissions, routing tasks to human experts when needed; (2) Paces Software, a self-serve AI platform featuring Project Search (AI-enhanced parcel search) and Permitting Predictor (jurisdiction-level permitting risk assessment); and (3) a modular reports suite including Power Flow Studies, Critical Issues Analysis, Risk Reports, Environmental Reports, and Off-Cycle Case Updates, delivered in 5-10 days instead of traditional 12-week timelines. Development-as-a-Service extends Paces experts into customer origination, permitting, and interconnection execution.
The business model combines SaaS subscriptions (quote-based, annual contracts with minimum 8% annual escalators), professional services (modular and industry-standard reports), and managed services (Development-as-a-Service), distributed through direct enterprise sales, self-serve PLG, and content marketing. Paces has raised $12.9M total from Y Combinator, Resolute Ventures, Navitas Capital, Suffolk Technologies, MCJ Collective, and Soma Capital, with the $11M Series A in July 2024 led by Navitas Capital. The team combines AI engineers from Meta AI, DeepMind, AWS, NASA, and Tesla with energy-industry veterans from TotalEnergies, Nexamp, Con Edison, and GE.
Paces firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Paces
- Legal name
- Paces AI Inc.
- Website
- https://paces.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2022
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- Paces is an AI software and services company that accelerates US energy infrastructure development for power developers, data center developers, and utilities through autonomous AI agents, GIS-based software, and expert-validated reports.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Paces industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Energy Infrastructure Development Software
- NAICS
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Environmental Data QA/QC, Validation & Governance (Data Quality, Metadata, Lineage) (EUAHAKAK)
Keywords
Where Paces is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Brooklyn
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Paces business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Software Platform Subscription: SaaS platform providing AI-enhanced software for site search, risk visualization, permitting analysis, and project pipeline management. Customers may use software independently without purchasing additional services.
- Modular and Industry-Standard Reports: Expert-validated reports including Power Flow Studies and Critical Issues Analysis, delivered in under 10 days. Can be scoped to individual risk categories or bundled into packaged analyses.
- Development-as-a-Service: Paces experts operate as an extension of customer teams to support origination, site control, permitting, and interconnection execution over time.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise software with optional services |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels7 records
Paces product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Paces provides an AI-enhanced GIS software platform and modular expert-validated reports that help energy infrastructure teams identify viable project sites, assess permitting and environmental risk, and accelerate the path from origination to construction-ready. Its offerings span Paces Software (Project Search and Permitting Predictor), Paces Agent (autonomous AI for end-to-end workflows), Power Flow Studies, Critical Issues Analysis, Risk Reports, Environmental Reports, and Modular Reports delivered in 5–10 days.
Product overview
Paces is a software and services company offering an integrated platform for energy infrastructure development acceleration. The core offering consists of Paces Agent (autonomous AI handling end-to-end workflows), Paces Software (AI-enhanced GIS platform with Project Search and Permitting Predictor for site screening and risk analysis), and modular Reports including Power Flow Studies, Critical Issues Analysis, Risk Reports, and Environmental Reports (delivered in 5-10 days through AI-powered automation with expert validation). These are complemented by Development-as-a-Service where Paces experts support project execution, all unified within the Accelerated Development Framework. Paces serves solar, battery storage, hydrogen, geothermal, nuclear, data center, powered land developers, and utilities across the US clean energy infrastructure ecosystem.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Paces Agent Autonomous AI system that runs end-to-end power development workflows from siting to diligence and permit/interconnection submissions at machine speed, with expert-validated results. Routes tasks to human experts when needed. Targeted at energy development teams that need to scale pipelines without proportionally scaling headcount.
- Paces Software AI-enhanced GIS platform for energy developers to search parcels, visualize permitting, environmental, and grid constraints, and manage project pipelines from early screening through construction readiness. Includes Project Search and Permitting Predictor tools.
- Power Flow Study Detailed simulation evaluating the impact of proposed energy projects on the grid, providing interconnection feasibility analysis with multiple base cases, thermal/voltage N-0/N-1 analysis, and mitigation solutions. Delivered in days through automated grid insights combined with expert power engineering.
- Critical Issues Analysis (CIA) Civil-style environmental and permitting review delivered fast and affordably, assessing constraints across federal, state, and local layers including wetlands, protected habitats, flood zones, zoning compatibility, and permitting feasibility.
- Risk Report High-impact desktop analysis identifying early development risks across environmental, permitting, community sentiment, and power deliverability dimensions, consolidating constraints into a single readable report.
- Modular Reports Customizable site intelligence with 20+ modules across five categories (Power, Regulatory, Critical Infrastructure, Environmental, Sentiment/Regional Development), allowing developers to select exact data needed for specific workflow decisions. Delivered in 5–10 days.
- Environmental Report Automated site screening for renewable energy projects, consolidating critical environmental, zoning, and permitting data into a single comprehensive report within minutes.
- Development-as-a-Service Engagement model where Paces experts operate as an extension of customer teams to support origination, site control, permitting, and interconnection execution over time, with work delivered and tracked through the Paces platform.
- Off-Cycle Case Updates Add-on to Power Flow Study providing the first commercially available automated off-cycle sensitivity modeling, enabling automated sensitivity analysis beyond standard transmission base cases.
Quantifiable outcome
- 3x improvement in site origination success rate (from 1 in 10 to 1 in 3 closed deals)
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use Paces
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Paces technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability7 records
Feature7 records
Paces partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Paces competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Aurora Solar: AI-driven solar sales and design platform used by solar installers and developers for site assessment, design, and proposal generation. Direct peer in AI-enabled solar/renewable project development software, though Aurora is more focused on distributed/residential and small commercial, while Paces is oriented to utility-scale and pre-construction diligence.
- Terabase Energy: Digital platform for utility-scale solar project development, providing data, design automation, and construction management tools. Direct peer in digitizing siting, design, and execution workflows for large-scale solar developers, overlapping with Paces' Project Search and development acceleration offering.
- OpenSolar: Free, professional-grade solar design and sales platform for installers and developers, with proposal, MPPT, and battery modeling tools. Direct peer in solar project design and sales software; overlapping customer segment (solar developers) though typically smaller project sizes than Paces targets.
- Arcadia: Clean energy data platform that helps utilities, developers, and energy providers connect to distributed energy resources and customers. Direct peer in data infrastructure for clean energy decisioning, with overlap in supporting developers and utilities on project economics and customer/asset data, though Arcadia leans more toward customer-side data.
- EnergySage: Online solar marketplace and comparison platform where homeowners and businesses shop for solar, storage, and other distributed energy systems. Direct peer in solar software/marketplace infrastructure; serves a different stage of the funnel (customer acquisition vs. Paces' pre-construction diligence) but overlaps in solar developer customer base.
- Pick My Solar: Solar marketplace and installer platform that connects homeowners with solar providers and offers software tools to installers. Comparable to Paces in providing software tooling to solar developers/installers, with overlap in the distributed solar customer base, though Pick My Solar is more consumer-acquisition oriented.
Emerging players
- kWh Analytics: Solar risk analytics and asset management platform that provides performance, weather, and financial risk data to solar developers, owners, and financiers. Emerging player with overlap in solar project risk modeling; complements Paces' risk and permitting focus by serving the operations/finance phase of the asset lifecycle.
- LandGate: Data marketplace and analytics platform for land, energy, and natural resources, providing parcel-level data on resource potential and development suitability. Emerging peer in land/parcel data for energy development, overlapping with Paces' Project Search and siting use case but offering lighter analytical depth.
- Regrid: National parcel data and property intelligence platform providing nationwide parcel boundaries, ownership, and land use data used by developers, utilities, and governments. Emerging peer in supplying foundational land/parcel data that Paces layers analytics on top of; complementary rather than direct competing offering.
Broad incumbents
- Uplight: Energy management and customer engagement platform serving utilities with energy efficiency, demand response, DER orchestration, and analytics capabilities. Broad incumbent in utility-adjacent energy software; comparable customer base (utilities) and analytics depth, but focused on customer-side and grid operations rather than pre-construction siting.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Paces social profiles
Digital presencePaces financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Paces leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Paces funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors11 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Paces M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Paces
What does Paces do?
Paces provides an AI-enhanced GIS software platform and modular expert-validated reports that help energy infrastructure teams identify viable project sites, assess permitting and environmental risk, and accelerate the path from origination to construction-ready. Its offerings span Paces Software (Project Search and Permitting Predictor), Paces Agent (autonomous AI for end-to-end workflows), Power Flow Studies, Critical Issues Analysis, Risk Reports, Environmental Reports, and Modular Reports delivered in 5–10 days.
Is Paces a public or private company?
Paces is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Paces founded?
Paces was founded in 2022. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is Paces based?
Paces is headquartered in Brooklyn, United States, in the North America region.
How does Paces make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Software Platform Subscription is the primary driver. The others are modular and Industry-Standard Reports and development-as-a-Service.
Who are Paces's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Aurora Solar, Terabase Energy, OpenSolar, Arcadia, EnergySage and Pick My Solar. Emerging players are kWh Analytics, LandGate and Regrid. Uplight is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does Paces have an API?
No public API is recorded for Paces.
What industry is Paces in?
Paces's product category is Energy Infrastructure Development Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EUAHAKAK, Environmental Data QA/QC, Validation & Governance (Data Quality, Metadata, Lineage). Its NAICS code is 54151 and its SIC code is 7372.