A startup out to make homes more energy efficient continues to draw investor support. Brooklyn’s EnergyHub said in a press release Thursday it raised $14.5 million in a series B funding round that included Acadia Woods, .406 Ventures, the New York City Investment Fund, and Physic Ventures.
EnergyHub makes software and systems for energy management in homes. The company previously raised $3 million in March 2010 and nearly $7.2 million last December. It plans to use the new funding to expand the distribution of its energy management system, Home Base, and for a thermostat-monitoring software service released early this month.
According Jason Baron, chief operating officer, EnergyHub’s services capitalize on the movement to cut energy demand and to develop smart homes that can monitor appliance usage. “The new funding is going to support our development and the rollout of our Mercury console,” he says. Mercury is cloud-based software that lets homeowners program wireless thermostats, provided by the company, to automate their heat and air conditioning. “[They] can monitor and control it from their PC, an iPad, or other mobile devices,” Baron says.
Baron says utilities can also offer their customers the wireless thermostats, which connect to the Mercury platform. He says the utilities can use the system to set up responses to energy demand based on how users adjust their thermostats, so as to better manage peak loads on the grid.
