ICF makes energy management play with latest acquisition

ICF International has bought the assets and hired the staff of a technology company that has built an analytical platform for managing energy.

Terms of the deal for Symbiotic Engineering of Boulder, Colo., were not disclosed, but seven employees were hired as part of the transaction.

Symbiotic makes a sustainability information management system that energy utilities can use to make decisions on resource consumption trends and effectiveness. The system is served up to customers on a software-as-a-service platform, ICF officials said.

The company sees a strong market for this kind of analytics, as utilities require access to information to make better decisions.
The company plans to look for opportunities for the technology in the government market as well, a spokesman said.

“We fully intend to explore the federal space and we believe there could be applications for the SIMS framework at agencies that have energy-related responsibilities,” said Steve Anderson, senior director of public affairs for ICF.

ICF already has customers using the Symbiotic platform, the company said. ICF has an energy line of business that includes customers such as the Energy, Defense and State departments and the Environmental Protection Agency.