Paces
Software and services to accelerate renewable energy and power projects from siting to construction.
Website: https://www.paces.com/
Cover Block
From the public record
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Paces |
| Tagline | Software and services to accelerate renewable energy and power projects from siting to construction. |
| Headquarters | Brooklyn, United States [Y Combinator] |
| Founded | 2022 [Y Combinator] |
| Stage | Series A [Crunchbase, Retrieved 2026] |
| Business model | SaaS |
| Industry | Cleantech / Climatetech |
| Technology | AI / Machine Learning |
| Geography | North America |
| Growth profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding team | Co-Founders (2), James McWalter and Charles Bai [Y Combinator] |
| Funding label | $10M+ |
| Total disclosed funding | $12,900,000 [Paces, June 2022] [Paces, July 2024] |
Links
From the public record
- Website: https://www.paces.com/
- Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/paces
The Short Version
PUBLIC Paces builds software for renewable and power-project development, and it merits investor attention because it sits at a real operational bottleneck: early-stage siting, permitting, and grid diligence remain data-heavy, slow, and expensive for developers trying to move projects toward construction [Latitude Media, September 2024] [Paces, Unknown]. The company was founded in 2022 in Brooklyn by James McWalter and Charles Bai, and the public record presents the founding story as a blend of infrastructure-data aggregation, machine learning, and clean-energy workflow design rather than a pure mapping tool or a general-purpose AI application [Paces, June 2022] [Y Combinator].
The product thesis is straightforward. Paces says its platform brings together zoning, permitting, grid, and environmental data to help customers identify viable sites and streamline project assessment, while the May 2026 launch of Paces Agent suggests an effort to extend from data access into workflow automation for power development teams [Paces, June 2022] [Data Center Dynamics, May 2026]. That matters because the differentiation appears to rest less on a standalone model layer and more on whether Paces can become a system of record for messy pre-construction decisions in energy infrastructure [Latitude Media, September 2024] [Paces, Unknown].
The team is one reason the company is getting early institutional backing, though much of the background detail remains company-sourced. McWalter is identified publicly as Paces' CEO, while Paces says he previously worked at FactSet, in startup data and machine learning roles, and at a Google-acquired AI startup; Paces says Bai, the co-founder and CTO, previously worked on large-model inference and AI efficiency at Meta AI [Bloomberg Markets, Retrieved 2026] [Paces, Unknown] [LinkedIn, Retrieved 2026].
On financing, the disclosed record is clean enough for a seed-to-Series A company: Paces announced a $1.9 million pre-seed in June 2022 led by Resolute Ventures and an $11 million Series A in July 2024 led by Navitas Capital, for roughly $12.9 million disclosed, with Y Combinator also in the investor base [Paces, June 2022] [Paces, July 2024] [Utility Dive, July 2024]. Latitude Media reported that Paces had around 100 customers as of September 2024 and described the company as subscription-based, which supports the SaaS framing, although public evidence on retention, ACV, and expansion remains thin [Latitude Media, September 2024].
Over the next 12 to 18 months, the key question is whether Paces can translate product breadth into deeper workflow ownership. Public signals to watch are customer growth beyond the roughly 100-account mark reported in 2024, evidence that Paces Agent is driving adoption rather than serving as a product-layer narrative, and proof that named customers such as EDF Renewables, AES, and Third Pillar Solar expand usage across development teams or project types [Latitude Media, September 2024] [Paces, July 2024] [Data Center Dynamics, May 2026].
Single-source, plausible -- This section relies on independent corroboration for funding and customer-count claims from Latitude Media, Utility Dive, and Bloomberg, but several product and team-background details remain company-sourced.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Value |
|---|---|
| Stage | Series A |
| Business Model | SaaS |
| Industry / Vertical | Cleantech / Climatetech |
| Technology Type | AI / Machine Learning |
| Geography | North America |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2) |
| Funding | $10M+ total disclosed, approximately $12.9M |
The Company in Brief
PUBLIC
Paces is a Brooklyn-based software company founded in 2022, focused on helping renewable energy and power developers move projects from site selection toward construction [Paces] [Crunchbase, Retrieved 2026]. The company presents itself as providing software and services to accelerate renewable energy infrastructure, with emphasis on permitting, interconnection, and site selection workflows [Paces]. Public materials identify James McWalter and Charles Bai as co-founders [Paces] [Crunchbase, Retrieved 2026].
The public timeline is short but clear on the main financing milestones. In June 2022, Paces announced a $1.9 million pre-seed led by Resolute Ventures, framing the product around zoning, permitting, grid, and environmental analysis for green infrastructure projects [Paces, June 2022]. In July 2024, the company announced an $11 million Series A led by Navitas Capital, bringing disclosed funding to roughly $12.9 million and marking its transition from early product formation to broader commercial scaling [Paces, July 2024] [Crunchbase, Retrieved 2026].
The company website and Crunchbase are aligned on the basic corporate profile, but public evidence is thinner on legal-entity detail and early formation history. Crunchbase lists Paces as a Series A company headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, while the company website anchors the operating narrative around accelerating clean energy development through a software platform rather than through project ownership or asset development [Crunchbase, Retrieved 2026] [Paces]. That distinction matters because the business appears to sit in the picks-and-shovels layer of energy development software, not in direct infrastructure deployment.
Confirmed across multiple sources -- Confirmed by company website and Crunchbase, with funding milestones corroborated by company announcements.
What They Have Built
MIXED
The product story is clearest at the workflow level: Paces sells software for the earliest and messiest part of power-project development, where developers need to decide which parcels are worth pursuing before permitting and interconnection work absorbs real time and capital [Paces, Unknown] [Latitude Media, September 2024]. Public materials describe the platform as a system that streamlines site selection, permitting, and interconnection by collecting and analyzing zoning, grid, and environmental data, with the stated aim of helping teams reduce timelines and assess constraints earlier in the process [Paces, Unknown] [Paces, June 2022]. That positioning matters because it places Paces less in generic analytics and more in pre-construction diligence software for renewable and adjacent power infrastructure.
The technology layer appears to have expanded over time from geospatial and infrastructure data into AI-assisted workflow automation. Latitude Media described Paces in 2024 as an AI-enabled GIS platform used to help customers evaluate development constraints and shorten assessment cycles, while Data Center Dynamics reported in May 2026 that the company launched Paces Agent, described as an "AI teammate for power development" [Latitude Media, September 2024] [Data Center Dynamics, May 2026]. The evidence supports a practical reading: Paces is trying to move from being a data and mapping interface into a system that participates more directly in development work, though the public record still says more about use cases than about underlying model architecture or deployment detail.
The available public sources do not support a precise description of the stack beyond those product surfaces. A YC company profile describes Paces as focused on agentic AI for power projects and AI infrastructure, and an open role for Software Engineer, Geospatial Systems suggests continued investment in geospatial product depth (inferred from job postings) [Y Combinator, Unknown]. Investors should treat claims about proprietary data advantage, model performance, or workflow automation depth as areas for further diligence rather than settled public fact.
Unconfirmed -- This section relies materially on company materials, with partial independent corroboration from Latitude Media, Data Center Dynamics, and Y Combinator.
Market Size and Demand
PUBLIC
This market matters now because power project development has become a data and timing problem as much as a capital problem, and the evidence in the public record suggests developers are looking for software that shortens the path from parcel screening to a construction-ready project [Latitude Media, September 2024] [Utility Dive, July 2024].
The available sources do not provide a clean third-party TAM, SAM, or SOM for Paces specifically, so the safer approach is to define the addressable market through adjacent public categories rather than invent precision. Paces is positioned around early-stage development workflows for renewable energy and related power infrastructure, including siting, permitting, interconnection, and environmental review [Paces, Unknown] [Latitude Media, September 2024]. That places it at the intersection of several existing software and services budgets: renewable project development, geospatial and infrastructure intelligence, and permitting or diligence tools for grid-connected assets [Utility Dive, July 2024] [Data Center Dynamics, May 2026].
A narrower reading of demand is visible in customer behavior rather than market size decks. Latitude Media reported that Paces had around 100 customers as of September 2024, which is a modest but useful signal that the buyer problem is recurring across developers rather than confined to one niche workflow [Latitude Media, September 2024]. The same coverage described a subscription-based model, which suggests the company is selling into an ongoing development process rather than a one-off data pull [Latitude Media, September 2024].
The demand drivers in the cited coverage are straightforward. Utility Dive framed Paces as part of a push to scale clean energy development, while the company and third-party coverage repeatedly describe a workflow burden built around fragmented zoning, grid, permitting, and environmental information [Utility Dive, July 2024] [Paces, June 2022] [Latitude Media, September 2024]. If that burden is real at scale, the software spend does not depend on a developer adopting a new asset class, it depends on reducing failure rates and cycle time in projects that would be pursued anyway [Latitude Media, September 2024].
The adjacent markets also matter because Paces appears to be widening beyond utility-scale renewables. The YC company page and Data Center Dynamics coverage place the product in front of data center and broader power infrastructure use cases, and the 2026 Paces Agent launch points toward workflow automation rather than a static GIS layer alone [Y Combinator] [Data Center Dynamics, May 2026]. That expands the substitute set from geospatial software into development operations tools, internal analyst workflows, and outside consulting work historically used to triage sites and constraints [Paces, Unknown] [Data Center Dynamics, May 2026].
| Market lens | Public evidence | Implication for Paces |
|---|---|---|
| Renewable project development software | Paces says it helps accelerate projects from siting through permitting and interconnection [Paces, Unknown] | Core budget likely sits with developers managing early-stage pipeline risk |
| Infrastructure and geospatial intelligence | Latitude Media describes an AI-enabled GIS product used for site selection and development constraints [Latitude Media, September 2024] | Product can compete for mapping, diligence, and analyst workflow spend |
| Power infrastructure workflow automation | Data Center Dynamics covered Paces Agent as an "AI teammate for power development" [Data Center Dynamics, May 2026] | Over time, spend could shift from data access toward higher-value task automation |
| Data center and power-adjacent development | YC describes Paces as agentic AI for power projects and AI infrastructure [Y Combinator] | The buyer universe may broaden if grid-constrained data center development remains active |
The table points to a market that is easier to validate through workflow pain than through headline TAM claims. In practical terms, Paces does not need to own all geospatial software or all clean energy software, it needs to win a credible share of early-stage development budgets where fragmented infrastructure data slows project throughput [Latitude Media, September 2024] [Utility Dive, July 2024].
Regulation and macro conditions are supportive, though the evidence here is more directional than quantified. The public materials consistently tie Paces to faster clean energy and power infrastructure deployment, which implies a beneficiary position when grid build-out, interconnection queues, and siting complexity rise as constraints on project delivery [Paces, Unknown] [Utility Dive, July 2024]. The risk, equally, is that long sales cycles and policy sensitivity in energy development can slow software adoption even when the underlying pain is evident.
Unconfirmed -- This section relies on named public sources for workflow demand and positioning, but it does not have independently published third-party TAM figures for Paces' exact market, and several market-boundary claims rest partly on company descriptions corroborated only in part by trade coverage.
Who Else Is Fighting for This
MIXED Paces appears to sit between legacy geospatial tooling and newer workflow software for power development, with its position defined less by owning a category today than by stitching together fragmented pre-construction work into one operating layer for developers [Paces, Unknown] [Latitude Media, September 2024] [Data Center Dynamics, May 2026].
The public record does not name direct startup rivals, so the competitive map has to be drawn from adjacent segments rather than a clean peer set. On one side are incumbents in mapping, land intelligence, and infrastructure diligence, the products developers already use to assess parcels, constraints, and permitting pathways; on another are internal analyst teams and consultants, which remain the default substitute when workflows are too bespoke for software alone. Paces' own description of the product, as software and services spanning siting through project readiness, suggests it is competing against a stack of tools and manual processes rather than a single vendor replacement [Paces, Unknown] [Paces, June 2022].
The current edge looks real, but still somewhat perishable. Public sources point to three assets: a workflow anchored in zoning, permitting, grid, and environmental data; customer proof points that include EDF Renewables, AES, and Third Pillar Solar; and a product roadmap that has moved from GIS-style diligence into an agentic layer with the May 2026 launch of Paces Agent [Paces, July 2024] [Latitude Media, September 2024] [Data Center Dynamics, May 2026]. That combination matters because clean-energy development is unusually shaped by local rules, fragmented datasets, and long cycle times, which gives a focused software company some room to build process memory that general-purpose tools do not capture. The durability question is whether that process memory compounds into proprietary workflow data, or whether larger platforms can replicate the same surface once customer demand is clearer.
The company's exposure is easier to see than the moat. If the buying center remains comfortable with a mix of incumbent GIS software, spreadsheets, outside counsel, and in-house development teams, Paces may improve work without fully displacing the existing stack [Latitude Media, September 2024] [Paces, June 2022]. It is also pushing into AI-assisted workflow at a moment when model-layer features are becoming easier to copy, which means the differentiation likely has to rest on underlying development data, product integration into daily project work, and trust with enterprise energy customers, not on the AI label by itself [Data Center Dynamics, May 2026] [Paces, Unknown].
Over the next 18 months, the most plausible scenario is continued category formation rather than a settled winner-take-most market. Paces is a credible winner if buyers decide that pre-construction diligence and permitting coordination should live in a dedicated power-development system rather than in generic mapping and document workflows, especially if the company can convert its roughly 100-customer base into deeper product adoption across larger accounts [Latitude Media, September 2024]. The clearest loser if that does not happen is not a named startup from the public record, but the broader software-and-services bundle Paces is trying to sell: if customers keep treating these tasks as episodic consulting work layered onto incumbent tools, the company could remain useful without becoming system-critical [Paces, Unknown] [Utility Dive, July 2024].
Single-source, plausible -- This section relies on named public sources for Paces' product scope, funding, customers, and traction, but the lack of named direct competitors in the source set limits corroborated peer-by-peer comparison.
Opportunity
PUBLIC
If Paces executes, the prize is not a better mapping tool, it is a system of record for early-stage power project development in a market where delays and site mistakes can erase project economics before construction even begins [Latitude Media, September 2024] [Paces, Unknown].
The clearest upside case is that Paces becomes the default pre-construction workflow layer for renewable and power-infrastructure developers, starting with siting and diligence, then moving into permitting, interconnection, and increasingly automated decision support. That outcome is reachable because the company already shows three ingredients that usually matter in vertical software: a concrete pain point, named enterprise customers, and evidence of early commercial density. Paces says its platform helps developers streamline site selection, permitting, and interconnection [Paces, Unknown]. Its July 2024 Series A announcement named EDF Renewables, AES, and Third Pillar Solar as customers, and Latitude Media reported around 100 customers as of September 2024 [Paces, July 2024] [Latitude Media, September 2024]. The May 2026 launch of Paces Agent also suggests the product is moving from static data access toward workflow automation, which tends to increase seat count, daily usage, and switching cost if it works in production [Data Center Dynamics, May 2026].
The growth paths are still narrow enough to name. In each case, the catalyst is less about broad climate sentiment and more about whether Paces can turn a useful diligence product into a workflow that teams rely on every week.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Power developer system of record | Paces becomes the core software layer used by renewable developers to evaluate parcels, triage constraints, and advance projects from initial screening into development workflows | Expansion from GIS and infrastructure data into agent-driven task execution after the launch of Paces Agent [Data Center Dynamics, May 2026] | Paces already serves named customers including EDF Renewables and AES, and Latitude Media reported around 100 customers by September 2024 [Paces, July 2024] [Latitude Media, September 2024] |
| AI workflow layer for power-intensive infrastructure | The company extends beyond renewables into data center, EV charging, and other power-constrained infrastructure planning where land, grid access, and permitting interact | Broader buyer set on the Y Combinator profile, which describes the company as agentic AI for power projects and AI infrastructure [Y Combinator] | The underlying problem, matching sites to power, permitting, and infrastructure constraints, is adjacent across several project categories rather than unique to solar or storage [Y Combinator] [Paces, Unknown] |
| Portfolio risk engine for investors and developers | Paces becomes a shared underwriting and portfolio-planning layer, not only a site-selection tool, helping capital providers compare risk and timeline across many projects | Its published framing around reducing development risk early and building dynamic development plans, if adopted by customers beyond individual project teams [LinkedIn, Retrieved 2026] | The customer base described by Paces includes developers, operators, and investors, which supports a multi-stakeholder workflow if the software can standardize early diligence [Paces, Unknown] [Y Combinator] |
The compounding dynamic here would come from repetition in a messy workflow. Every project evaluated on the platform can add to Paces' understanding of how zoning, grid, environmental, and permitting constraints interact at the parcel level, and every additional module used by a customer increases the cost of switching back to spreadsheets, consultants, and one-off GIS work. The public evidence for that flywheel is early rather than complete, but it is visible: Paces has raised successive rounds to build the product, reports a subscription model through Latitude Media, and has already moved from a data platform framing in 2022 toward a broader AI workflow framing in 2026 [Paces, June 2022] [Latitude Media, September 2024] [Data Center Dynamics, May 2026]. If that progression continues, the moat is less likely to sit in the model layer alone and more likely to sit in workflow placement, proprietary project data exhaust, and customer-specific operational context.
The size of the win is best framed as scenario logic, not a forecast. No verified public market-sizing figure is available in the cited sources, so the cleanest benchmark is internal scale potential rather than TAM rhetoric. If Paces were to become the standard pre-construction software layer for a meaningful share of North American renewable and power-infrastructure developers, with a product mix spanning data subscriptions, workflow automation, and investor-facing portfolio tools, the outcome could support a venture-scale software business with strategic value to infrastructure software, construction technology, or energy-transition platforms (scenario, not a forecast). That ambition is grounded by the fact pattern already on the page: around 100 customers by September 2024, named enterprise accounts, and product expansion into agentic workflows, all in a category where reducing time-to-decision can have direct project-level economic value [Latitude Media, September 2024] [Paces, July 2024] [Data Center Dynamics, May 2026].
Single-source, plausible -- This section relies on one independent outlet for customer count, one independent outlet for the 2026 product launch, and company sources for customer names, product scope, and workflow claims.
Sources
From the public record
[Y Combinator] Paces: Agentic AI for Power Projects and AI Infrastructure | Y Combinator | https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/paces
[Paces, June 2022] Green Infrastructure Data Platform Paces raises $1.9M Pre-Seed led by Resolute Ventures | https://www.paces.com/post/green-infrastructure-data-platform-paces-raises-1-9m-pre-seed-led-by-resolute-ventures
[Paces, July 2024] Paces Raises $11 Million to Accelerate Clean Energy Development | https://www.paces.com/news/paces-raises-11-million-to-accelerate-clean-energy-development
[Latitude Media, September 2024] Can AI-fueled data research save clean energy developers precious time? | https://www.latitudemedia.com/news/can-ai-fueled-data-research-save-clean-energy-developers-precious-time/
[Paces] Paces | Home | https://www.paces.com/
[Bloomberg Markets, Retrieved 2026] James McWalter, Paces AI Inc: Profile and Biography - Bloomberg Markets | https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/person/24973440
[LinkedIn, Retrieved 2026] Miller Vaughan - Software Engineer @ Paces | https://www.linkedin.com/in/miller-vaughan-064059135/
[Crunchbase, Retrieved 2026] Paces | Crunchbase | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/paces
[Data Center Dynamics, May 2026] Paces Agent is here: An AI teammate for power development | https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/product-news/paces-agent-is-here-an-ai-teammate-for-power-development/
[Utility Dive, July 2024] Data platform Paces nabs $11M to scale clean energy development | https://www.utilitydive.com/news/data-platform-paces-nabs-11m-to-scale-clean-energy-development/722760/
Articles about Paces
- Paces Agent Is the AI Teammate for 100 Power Developers — The Brooklyn startup's AI platform, used by EDF and AES, aims to shave months off the permitting and interconnection process for new solar and data center projects.