The meter data management company eMeter announced today that it has raised $12.5 million in series D financing led by Sequoia Capital and Foundation Capital, and joined by new investor Northgate Capital.

The San Mateo-based company raised $32 million last year, in addition to the $25M raised in its first two rounds of funding.

"As a result of our maniacal focus on the customer, the eMeter platform is being used in the most successful Smart Grid deployments around the world," Gary Bloom, CEO of eMeter, said in a statement.

Although eMeter has more than 24 million meters under contract, it has already moved into the home energy management system business as well with its product Energy Engage. Just last week, eMeter Chief Regulatory Officer Chris King briefed members of the Executive Office of the President and the Department of Energy on the results of the PowerCents DC Program, a time-of-use and smart thermostat pilot in Washington, D.C. The pilot led to only moderate savings for consumers, but up to a 50 percent reduction of peak demand at the homes in summer -- so the gains were greatest for the utility.

The company is best known for its software that helps utilities analyze data from consumers' homes, transformers, and other equipment. IBM has begun to pre-bundle the software on servers and will help eMeter promote its software even more in the market.

Energy Engage is potentially an add-on for utilities already using eMeter for meter data management. The company also has strategic partnerships with Accenture, Logica, and Siemens.

EMeter said in a statement it will use this most recent round of financing to expand its sales and marketing efforts and to invest in new products, all moves that will help the company stay competitive with a deep-pocketed field of competitors that includes Google, Microsoft and Cisco, not to mention an ocean of startups that seems to get bigger with every passing day.