Plume

What do they actually do

Plume provides an AI-assisted map and chat interface that helps renewable-energy developers find and shortlist land parcels suited for solar, wind, or storage. Users create a project area in a web dashboard, ask plain‑English questions (for example, looking for parcels near substations and outside protected zones), and receive mapped candidates with a brief feasibility explanation that draws on many geospatial and regulatory sources (YC; homepage). Coverage currently includes Europe and the U.S., with the platform analyzing dozens of constraints and intersecting structured map layers with parsed local documents to surface constraints and supporting evidence (PV Magazine France).

The product is delivered as a central web dashboard with an interactive map and a chat layer. It includes an AI module to interact with geospatial data and another to parse and answer questions from unstructured documents (such as planning rules, permits, and council notices). Users can filter by parcel size, grid proximity, and protected areas, inspect sources, and export results for early due diligence (homepage; PV Magazine France).

Plume is early-stage (YC S24) with initial customers among developers and prospectors in Europe and the U.S.; the team signals ongoing hiring and expanding coverage rather than broad, mature deployments at this stage (YC; LinkedIn; PV Magazine France).

Who are their target customer(s)

• Renewable project developers and prospectors: Struggle to find parcels that are physically suitable and not blocked by local rules; spend hours reconciling fragmented maps and public records before shortlisting sites.
• EPC and technical due‑diligence teams: Need fast, consistent signals on grid proximity and site constraints; currently piece together scattered datasets and PDFs to estimate feasibility and connection costs.
• Asset owners, aggregators, and utilities: Require standardized, auditable site assessments across teams; early screening is inconsistent and hard to compare portfolio‑wide.
• Project finance and lending teams: Need clear, documentable evidence that sites avoid obvious permitting and environmental blockers; compiling proof from local sources is slow and manual.
• Land‑acquisition and commercial teams (brokers, in‑house land teams): Waste time pulling cadastral records, servitudes and notices to confirm ownership and leasing feasibility; difficult to prioritize outreach without linked parcel records.

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Leverage founder networks and YC intros to run high‑touch pilots with 2–3 anchor developers; tailor demos to a target region, curate local data layers, and convert pilots by delivering exportable feasibility packs and success stories (YC; PV Magazine France; LinkedIn).
• First 50: Standardize a regional pilot pack and onboarding checklist; hire initial sales/implementation roles, run targeted outbound to heads of development/land, publish short case studies, and co‑market with a few EPC/land‑broker partners to accelerate demos and conversions.
• First 100: Add SDRs and a self‑serve demo; productize onboarding tiers, expand channel partnerships, localize materials, and run multi‑country PR/content while building light integrations/exports and lender‑friendly evidence packages to unlock larger accounts.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

The addressable market sits inside renewable development software and GIS tools used for early‑stage siting and due diligence by developers, EPCs, utilities, and lenders in the US, EU, and later globally. This is a focused workflow segment of broader GIS spend, centered on parcel‑level screening, grid access, and permitting evidence.

Bottom-up calculation:

Assume ~1,500 developer/EPC/utility teams in the US+EU could adopt a siting/screening tool at an average $25k annual subscription; that implies a serviceable market of roughly $37.5M. Extending to ~3,000 teams globally at similar pricing yields an order‑of‑magnitude TAM of ~$75M, with upside from enterprise tiers and additional seats per organization.

Assumptions:

• Counts reflect teams actively doing utility‑scale siting (not all org employees).
• Average ACV of ~$25k includes data onboarding and reporting features, excluding heavy custom work.
• Adoption starts in US+EU and expands globally as local data coverage is added.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• PVcase (incl. Anderson Optimization): PVcase acquired Anderson Optimization, a leading US solar siting platform used for early-stage site selection and feasibility, integrating interconnection, terrain, and environmental factors (PVcase; pv magazine).
• Pivvot: GIS platform for renewable siting, gen‑tie routing, and environmental constraint analysis with hundreds of data sources and suitability tools (Pivvot).
• LandGate: Energy land data and marketplace offering parcel, transmission, and interconnection insights used by developers for site selection and analysis (LandGate).
• Transect: Environmental due diligence and site screening software that aggregates regulatory and environmental data, permits matrices, and mapping tools for faster evaluations (Transect).
• Esri ArcGIS: The incumbent GIS stack many developers use to build custom siting workflows for renewables, from site selection to land acquisition and assessment (Esri).