January 5, 2010

EcoFactor Secures Funding for Residential Energy Management Service

EcoFactor, a residential energy management service, announced today that it has closed a $2.4 million financing led by Claremont Creek Ventures. The infusion of capital will help EcoFactor accelerate commercial deployment of its residential energy management solution. As part of this financing round, Nat Goldhaber, Managing Director of Claremont Creek Ventures, has joined EcoFactor's Board of Directors.

The three-year-old technology company's financing comes on the heels of strong business momentum in 2009, highlighted by winning the grand prize in the Cleantech Open national business plan competition, the largest competition of its kind, and announcing its first commercial deployment with Oncor, a regulated electric utility delivering power to more than three million homes and businesses in Texas.

"We have been bullish on end-user energy efficiency for some time now and have invested a lot of time in finding the winning play. Our investment strategy is to turbo-charge the uncommon startup, and we believe EcoFactor fits our model well," said Nat Goldhaber, Claremont Creek Ventures Managing Director, who has previously invested in several demand-side energy companies. "What impressed us most about EcoFactor is that their approach has the potential to create not just a successful business, but a whole new market. They combine the technology to deliver painless energy savings with the vision to deliver that efficiency as a cost-effective service to millions of homes. We think EcoFactor is going to fundamentally change the game in energy management."

EcoFactor offers a SaaS-based residential energy management solution that works with two-way communicating thermostats and a broadband Internet connection to develop a dynamic, customized heating and cooling strategy. The solution has proven that it can save homeowners an average of 20-30 percent on their HVAC energy spend without loss of comfort or control. The company's personalized approach to HVAC management continuously adapts to thousands of new data points each day, including weather patterns, a home's unique thermal characteristics and occupant preferences. In addition to consumer savings, EcoFactor offers cost-effective and self-validating energy efficiency, demand response and load forecasting to utilities and energy retailers.

"EcoFactor's mission is to offer an alternative to the one-size-fits-all residential energy management systems that are currently available," said John Steinberg, EcoFactor CEO. "We've spent the last few years building a solution that delivers real value for consumers as well as companies that want to offer energy management services to their customers. With the support of a strong VC partner like Claremont Creek, we can bring this technology to more people and make a difference in reducing overall residential energy consumption."

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