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LexaVolt
Phase 1 · $100k · TRL 4
Funding Deck

The security boundary
for residential DERfleets.

LexaVolt builds a hardware-rooted secure gateway that lets OEMs and aggregators connect solar, batteries, and EV chargers into virtual power plants — without inheriting legacy-device cyber risk.

Secure SunSpec ModbusIEEE 2030.5 / CSIPHardware Root of Trust

LexaVolt whitepaper, “Securing the Grid Edge” — Dmitri Hunt, Founder

§ IInvestment Thesis

Residential DERs became grid infrastructure. Their comms stack was never built like it.

01

The convergence

DER adoption, VPP deployment, IEEE 2030.5 / CSIP mandates, Secure SunSpec Modbus, and smart-inverter cybersecurity guidance are collapsing into one market requirement.

02

The requirement

Secure, interoperable, certifiable control at the grid edge — for every mixed fleet of solar, storage, and EV charging a utility program touches.

03

The company

LexaVolt is the standards-native secure DER gateway for the OEMs and aggregators who must deliver that control and cannot build it themselves.

80–160 GW
DOE VPP target by 2030
10–20%
of US peak load addressable
$10B/yr
grid cost savings

U.S. Department of Energy

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§ IIThe Problem

A single inverter is not systemically important.
A fleet of compromised ones is.

46
new inverter vulnerabilities

Disclosed across Sungrow, Growatt, and SMA — three of the top six manufacturers worldwide.

80%
high or critical severity

Share of solar-system vulnerabilities disclosed over the prior three years.

1 in 3
fleets exposed via vendor cloud

Remote takeover paths reached devices through the manufacturer's own management cloud.

  • Flaws allowed firmware to be overwritten and owner accounts hijacked through vendor clouds.
  • Researchers modeled a coordinated on/off swing across a captured fleet large enough to destabilize a grid.
  • CISA, NSA, and FBI assess state actors are pre-positioning in energy networks for disruption on demand.
  • NIST now publishes DER-specific smart-inverter cybersecurity guidance (IR 8498). This is no longer theoretical.

Sources: Forescout Vedere Labs (SUN:DOWN, 2025) · Dragos · CISA/NSA/FBI joint advisory · NIST IR 8498

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§ IIIThe Customer Pain

OEMs and aggregators need three things at once. Today they get one or two.

Need 01

Interoperability

With the enormous installed base of legacy SunSpec Modbus devices already in the field — no forklift upgrade available.

Need 02

Secure remote control

For VPP, utility, and DERMS programs, over a control path that survives a hostile network.

Need 03

Certification-ready compliance

IEEE 2030.5 / CSIP, SunSpec Modbus, and emerging Secure SunSpec Modbus expectations — provable, not asserted.

The result

Custom integration work on every program. Longer pilot cycles. Inconsistent security posture. Expensive utility onboarding, repeated per OEM.

California Rule 21 already requires DERs in IOU territories to use IEEE 2030.5 in the CSIP profile by default.

SunSpec Alliance

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§ IVThe Solution

A hardware-rooted gateway that sits where the grid meets the home.

It authenticates, authorizes, translates, bounds, logs, and safely enforces every DER control — once, at the boundary.

NORTHBOUND · WIDE-AREA CONTROLUTILITY DERMSIEEE 2030.5 / CSIPAGGREGATOR · VPPSecure SunSpec ModbusLEXAVOLTSecure GatewayAuthenticate · mTLS + X.509Authorize · role-based policyTranslate · bound · rate-limitLog · tamper-evident + timedSOUTHBOUND · CONTAINEDINVERTERSecure SunSpec ModbusBATTERYSunSpec ModbusEV CHARGERSunSpec ModbusLegacy bus physically isolated —no direct route to the control plane.
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§ VWhy This Wins · Competitive Landscape

We don’t replace OEM clouds or DERMS platforms. We supply the layer neither of them owns.

Differentiation
  • Hardware-rooted device identity in a secure element
  • Mutual TLS with full certificate lifecycle and revocation
  • Secure SunSpec Modbus early mover
  • IEEE 2030.5 / CSIP client capability
  • Legacy Modbus containment behind the boundary
  • Fail-safe control and bounded actuation by default
  • Tamper-evident logs and authenticated time
  • Designed for certification from day one
Competitive reality

SunSpec’s certification registry already lists gateways, clients, and aggregators from Enphase, Tesla, Generac, Schneider, SMA, Kitu, QCells, and others. Incumbents validate the category.

The LexaVolt wedge

A brand-agnostic secure gateway focused on security-boundary enforcement — not a closed OEM ecosystem competing for the homeowner.

Sources: SunSpec Alliance product certification registry · Secure SunSpec Modbus specification

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§ VIMarket Pull · TAM

DER aggregation is now a regulated market category.

U.S. demand indicators
  • FERC Order 2222 opens organized wholesale markets to DER aggregations — rooftop solar, storage, EVs, and charging equipment.
  • Nearly 6 million U.S. solar systems installed; cumulative capacity expected to nearly triple by 2036.
  • 9 GWh cumulative U.S. residential storage reached by 2025; 60+ GWdc of residential solar expected 2026–2036.
  • NREL projects 28 million U.S. EV charging ports needed by 2030 — mostly home and workplace.
Conservative 2030 gateway SAM
2–5M
VPP-relevant DER sites
$0.5–2.25B
hardware revenue potential

At $250–$450 ASP per gateway.

$48–360M
recurring ARR potential

At $2–$6 per site per month.

Sources: FERC · DOE · SEIA · NREL

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§ VIIBusiness Model · Certification Plan

Sell into the companies that already own the customer. Certify from day one.

Revenue streams
Gateway hardware$250–$450 ASP
OEM embedded license$75–$150 / unit
Fleet security service$2–$6 / site / mo
Certification & integration NRE$50k–$250k / program
Long-term supportFirmware · CVE · PKI

Primary customers: DER OEMs needing certified secure comms · aggregators and VPP operators needing fleet edge security · DERMS and utility-program integrators needing protocol translation.

Certification is part of the product
  • SunSpec IEEE 2030.5 / CSIP
  • SunSpec Modbus
  • Secure SunSpec Modbus conformance
  • FCC / EMC
  • UL safety path (incl. UL 3141 alignment)
  • IEC 62443-aligned secure development
  • NIST IR 8498 smart-inverter controls

SunSpec certification fees: $5,000 members / $10,000 non-members, plus authorized test-lab fees set independently. CSIP certification applies to clients, gateways, aggregators, and servers.

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§ VIIIPhase 1 · Use of Funds

$100k gets us certified in 6 months.

Certification is the near-term focus — it is the gate every OEM and aggregator buys behind. Phase 1 funds the test DERs, harness, and lab fees to get there; then $1M proves product-market fit with paying OEM and aggregator pilots.

Test DERs, lab bench, simulation-harness expansion$40k
SunSpec / CSIP certification — test-lab fees & pre-test$30k
Pilot hardware build — boards, enclosures, test fixtures$20k
CAD & design software licences$10k
Phase 1 · $100k · 6 months

Certification achieved on the target processor, validated against real DERs.

Phase 2 · $1M

Paid pilots and repeatable design wins — the evidence that proves product-market fit.

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§ IXPhase 1 Milestones

Six months from TRL 4 prototype to a pilot build in the field.

Month 0–1

Target-processor board bring-up, threat model freeze, pilot BOM

Month 1–2

Secure boot, key provisioning, hardware root of trust on production silicon

Month 2–3

CSIP client and Secure SunSpec Modbus hardened out of the simulation harness

Month 3–4

Southbound adapters against real inverter, battery, and EVSE hardware

Month 4–5

Pilot build, factory-test fixture, automated regression suite

Month 5–6

Field-ready units with first OEM / aggregator evaluations underway

Phase 2 readiness target — unlocks the $1M

Pilot units in the field · two evaluation customers · certification submissions opened · field telemetry · a factory-test process · and a credible BOM and margin model.

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§ XTraction · Team

TRL 4 today — not a slide-ware concept.

A demonstrable prototype is running on the target processor, exercised against a LexaVolt-built simulation harness that emulates DERMS, aggregator, and legacy DER traffic.

Where we are
  • Working prototype on the target production processor
  • LexaVolt-made simulation harness — northbound CSIP and southbound Modbus traffic under test
  • Security architecture and threat model documented in the whitepaper
  • Next step is a pilot build on production hardware — that is the $100k
Who is building it
Dmitri Hunt
Founder · Product & Engineering

Has delivered complex electronics systems into production inside highly regulated industries — the exact discipline a certified, grid-connected security device demands.

Mike
Finance & Operations

Finance and accounting professional, former associate at VC firms. Specializes in crossing the T's and dotting the I's that most startups never get right — diligence-grade books, controls, and reporting from day one.

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§ XIGo-To-Market · Risk

Beachhead: OEMs and aggregators already inside CSIP, VPP, and utility DER programs.

Sales motion
  1. 1Lab demo with real DERs
  2. 2Paid integration pilot
  3. 3Certification-backed field pilot
  4. 4OEM design-in or aggregator fleet deployment
  5. 5Recurring security service attached to every gateway

First targets: inverter and battery OEMs without mature gateway security, aggregators running mixed fleets, DERMS integrators, and CSIP utility pilots.

Key risks and mitigations
Certification runs long

Build to SunSpec test procedures early; budget pre-test and ATL iteration.

OEMs prefer closed ecosystems

Sell as an accelerator, not a replacement — embedded license plus gateway SKU.

Secure SunSpec Modbus is early

Ship CSIP and legacy SunSpec Modbus now; secure profile is the forward wedge.

Hardware margins compress

Recurring security service, OEM licensing, factory-test automation.

Aggregator cycles are slow

Lead with paid pilots and compliance pain, not generic energy optimization.

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§ XIIThe Ask
$100k
Phase 1 · 6 months · pilot build

Take the TRL 4 prototype to a pilot build on production hardware. Then $1M to prove product-market fit with certified, paid OEM and aggregator pilots.

Investor thesis

The grid is moving from centralized assets to coordinated fleets. Somebody has to secure the boundary between internet-connected fleet control and local energy hardware. That is a structural requirement — not a bet on one OEM, one utility, or one VPP program.

What $100k delivers
  • Pilot build on production hardware, in the field
  • Interoperability proven against real inverters, batteries, EVSE
  • Certification submissions opened
  • 2+ evaluation customers engaged
  • Automated factory-test process
  • Evidence package that unlocks the $1M

For a device that governs real power at the grid edge, security is the product — not a feature.

LexaVolt · Securing the Grid Edge

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