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EcoFactor Secures Venture Financing to Commercialize Residential Energy Management Solution
Claremont Creek Ventures Funds Award-Winning Clean Tech Upstart; Claremont's Nat Goldhaber Joins Board of Directors
| Source: EcoFactor
REDWOOD CITY, CA--(Marketwire - January 5, 2010) - EcoFactor, a premier 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."
About Claremont Creek Ventures
Claremont Creek Ventures (www.claremontvc.com) is a venture capital firm
based in Oakland, California with a $130M first fund and a $175M second
fund. Founded in 2005 by Managing
Directors Nat Goldhaber, Randy Hawks and John Steuart, Claremont Creek is
the premier funding source for early stage technology opportunities in the
East Bay, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and beyond. The firm works closely
with local institutions such as UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and the Lawrence
Livermore and Berkeley Laboratories to help inventors and entrepreneurs
turn great ideas into great products and companies. For more information,
please visit www.claremontvc.com.
About EcoFactor
EcoFactor provides personalized solutions for managing residential energy
use for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC). Its SaaS platform
collects, analyzes and acts upon thousands of data points relating to a
home's HVAC needs and preferences to help utilities improve demand
management, and enable consumers to lower energy costs and save money on
utility bills without sacrificing comfort or giving up control. EcoFactor
is working with leading energy and home service providers to maximize
energy efficiency programs. Based in Redwood City, Calif., EcoFactor was
founded in 2006 to provide an effective alternative to one-size-fits-all
residential energy management solutions. More can be found online at
www.ecofactor.com.