Jeff St. John | March 27, 2009 at 8:37 AM 2 Comments

Gridpoint Sued by Founder of Acquired V2Green

It looks like David Kaplan, the founder of electric car charging software startup V2Green, isn't so happy about his company being bought by smart grid software developer Gridpoint back in September. To be more specific, he's not too happy about not working for Gridpoint anymore, according to his lawsuit filed against the Arlington, Va.-based startup on March 16 in King County Superior Court. Kaplan's lawsuit claims Gridpoint fired him without cause in February and failed to honor his employment agreement pledging him a year's salary — about $200,000 — if that happened, his attorney, Michael Subit, said Friday. But GridPoint believes that "David Kaplan was not terminated and that his decision to leave GridPoint was entirely his own," according to a prepared statement from the company. "Moreover, GridPoint has honored Mr. Kaplan’s employment agreement."

"I totally disagree with that," Subit said Friday. "When you're removed from your position and given no other position in the company, that's termination. That's what happened to Mr. Kaplan."

Subit wouldn't comment on whether Kaplan's departure from Gridpoint represented a split between the two on how to integrate  V2Green's car charging technology into its broader offering of "smart grid" related software.

GridPoint had done pilot electric car charging tests on its own with Duke Energy before it bought V2Green (see Laying the Grid Groundwork for Plug-In Hybrids). But V2Green had done pilot projects with more utilities — Xcel Energy, Austin Energy and Seattle City Light, to be specific.

Subit also wouldn't say how much financial reward Kaplan reaped from the sale of V2Green in September, when Gridpoint bought the Seattle-based startup for an undisclosed sum.

Gridpoint also announced a $120 million funding round, on top of about $102 million it had previously raised, at that time and said it was looking for more acquisitions (see Gridpoint Gets $120M, Buys V2Green).

John Clark, former CEO of V2Green, is now leading the electric vehicle management group in Seattle, Gridpoint said in its prepared statement.

"We acquired V2Green because we saw potential not only in its technology but in its people," the company stated. "GridPoint is expanding and hiring at both its Seattle office and Arlington headquarters."