- WattBuy announced it has secured $1.2 million in a seed round of funding with Powerhouse Ventures and Schmidt Futures
WattBuy announced it has raised $1.2 million in a seed round of funding with Powerhouse Ventures as well as funding from Schmidt Futures in order to focus on expanding market access and deepening its data science capabilities. And WattBuy’s other investors include Fort Worth-based Fort Ventures, energy leader John Sherman (former CEO of Inergy and board member of Great Plains Energy), Justin Alanis (CEO of Rentlytics, sold to RealPage), and James Beshara (CEO of Tilt, sold to Airbnb).
“The global deregulated electricity market is enormous, and growing quickly. In the US alone, 60 million residential households and apartments are in deregulated markets, representing a $14 billion market,” said Powerhouse Ventures founder and managing director Emily Kirsch. “WattBuy has built a trusted platform with the right channel partners and necessary relationships with retail electricity providers (REPs), demonstrating a unique and scalable customer acquisition strategy and leveraging data to add value for users.”
Schmidt Futures is a philanthropic initiative founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt for contributing to OpenEI (Open Energy Information), an open data initiative that is developed and maintained by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with funding and support from the U.S. Department of Energy.
“Schmidt Futures is thrilled to support WattBuy in their data collaborative with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL),” said Kumar Garg — the Senior Director for Technology and Society at Schmidt Futures. “This partnership has the potential to help families save hundreds of dollars on electricity costs, support the adoption of renewable energy plans in deregulated states, and showcase the potential for open energy data.”
WattBuy launched in August 2017 and it operates an electricity marketplace for residents to set up electricity plans in states where residents have the choice for who provides their electricity. Currently, it operates in Texas, New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.
As part of the products, residents are able to enter their address and see personalized results for their homes to identify the best electricity plan to save money and go renewable. WattBuy had participated in Techstars’ Kansas City Accelerator in June 2018. And this year it was selected as one of nine companies in Moderne Venture’s Passport Accelerator Program.
WattBuy also announced it signed partnerships with Hello Alfred and Zego to help residents seamlessly choose electricity services when moving into a new apartment. And these direct partnerships with real estate companies will further expand WattBuy’s ability to help residents save on electricity costs and reduce their carbon footprint.
“Zego’s vision to enhance the living experience through technology and services aligns with WattBuy’s, so we are happy to partner with them to empower their residents to make more informed decisions about electricity costs,” explained — Adam Blake — the founder of Zego.
Naman Trivedi and Ben Hood — the founders of WattBuy — had launched the company to combat the pervasive lack of transparency in the world of energy choice. Trivedi previously worked at the White House Office of Science and Tech Policy and Google. And he pointed out that residents using WattBuy can “finally make intelligent, data-driven decisions to save money and go renewable.”
