Sydney-based infrastructure and energy tech startup Neara has just closed a AUD 90 million (about $90 million) Series D funding round, pushing its valuation past **$1.1 billion and officially making it a unicorn.

What Neara Does

Neara develops physics-enabled digital twin technology — advanced AI-powered models that create detailed 3D simulations of real-world infrastructure networks like electricity grids. These digital twins help utilities and infrastructure operators understand how physical systems behave under stress, identify underused capacity, plan expansions, and respond to outages or extreme conditions faster and more accurately than traditional methods.

Funding and Investors

The latest round was led by US growth equity firm TCV, with returning participation from Partners Group, EQT, Square Peg Capital, and Skip Capital. This investment follows Neara’s previous Series C and brings its total capital raised to around AUD 180 million to date.

Reaching a valuation of about AUD 1.1 billion — roughly $1.1 billion USD — places Neara firmly in the elite class of startup unicorns and underscores investor confidence in the company’s technology and market potential.

Why This Matters

The funding comes at a time when global energy and infrastructure systems are under pressure from rising demand — particularly driven by rapid growth in AI data centres, electrification, and renewable energy. Traditional grid planning methods struggle with fast changes, and Neara’s digital twin models aim to provide a more precise, physics-based foundation for planning and decision-making.

Expansion and Future Plans

Neara plans to use the new capital to accelerate global expansion, deepen its AI and machine learning capabilities, and grow its engineering and commercial teams. The company’s tools are already used by utilities across Australia, the US and Europe, where energy providers are looking to optimise grid performance and reliability in an era of surging demand.