Tetra – a rapidly growing home services company helping homeowners transition from fossil fuels to clean energy – recently announced that it raised a $10.5 million seed funding round led by Greycroft, Gutter Capital, Lerer Hippeau and 1sharpe Capital. The funding will be used to expand Tetra’s offering into new markets including New York and California, and to continue investment into developing its proprietary technology designed for making it easier and more affordable for homeowners to lower their carbon footprint.
The rising energy costs and weather extremes are driving increasing demand for more efficient home energy solutions. And federal and state governments are further catalyzing demand for clean energy technologies by providing rebates and credits to encourage households to install home upgrades that increase energy efficiency and manufacturers are responding with new, more efficient devices. But the rush of new technologies and newly available government incentives are leaving homeowners confused, while home improvement contractors are left ill equipped to help guide homeowners through the changing landscape. Tetra has a goal of making it simple for homeowners to navigate the complex process of transitioning to more cost-efficient home heating and cooling solutions.
Tetra developed the technology that allows homeowners to enter their address, get an instant price, and see what state and federal incentives are available to them. And Tetra’s end-to-end platform then matches customers with a qualified and vetted local contractor and creates efficiency along each step of the process. By redesigning and modernizing the home heating and cooling buying process, Tetra sets up cost savings of up to 30% compared to the average contractor and passes the savings to the homeowner.
Before founding Tetra, Max Veggeberg was the founder and CEO of HomeWorks Energy, which he grew to over $100M in revenue. And under his leadership, HomeWorks became the largest driver of consumer adoption of home energy efficiency initiatives in Massachusetts through Mass Save. The new federal Inflation Reduction Act was modeled closely to the Mass Save program, allocating billions of dollars in incentives to help homeowners make the switch to high-efficiency systems.
The team will continue investing in simplifying the consumer transaction experience while also improving administrative burdens on installers by automating end-to-end workflows from sales, to inventory management, system design, and installation.
KEY QUOTES:
“Millions of homeowners are interested in making improvements to their home heating and cooling but feel overwhelmed by the process. We are making the right choice, an easy choice, by leveraging our proprietary technology, installer network, and newly available government incentives to help guide thousands of American households who are eager to do their part in reducing their carbon footprint.”
- Max Veggeberg, CEO and Founder at Tetra
“Consumers want an affordable, environmentally friendly choice when replacing their heating and cooling system. The challenge has been navigating the myriad of technology options and government incentives. Tetra makes this task simple by automatically showing the best option and providing a seamless buying and installation process. Veggeberg and the Tetra team have made a very difficult task look simple. This can only be accomplished with a deep understanding of the market coupled with a dedicated team trying to solve it. We are excited about the future of Tetra given this positioning.”
- John Elton, Partner at Greycroft; As part of the investment, Elton will join Tetra’s Board of Directors.
“This funding positions Tetra at the forefront of a shift in heating and cooling among consumers looking to save energy and reduce their climate impact.”
- Isabelle Phelps, Partner at Lerer Hippeau, who has also joined Tetra’s board
“Every American household must participate if we are going to have a clean energy revolution in this country, at all levels of income and sophistication. We are excited to continue supporting Max and his exceptional team to build a business this country desperately needs. By providing a high efficiency, low cost solution with an amazing customer experience the Tetra team has an opportunity to accelerate the clean energy transformation in America.”
- Dan Teran, co-founder of Gutter Capital and Tetra Board member