OXFORD, U.K.—EcoSync announced that it has raised close to $1.2 million in its second seed funding round. The energy management technology start-up is looking forward to expanding into new sectors beyond higher education, bringing its energy saving benefits to other commercial buildings such as offices, schools and hotels.
EcoSync already has a leadership position in the U.K. with its solution. The new funding will help the business accelerate the development of its energy solution, which allows owners and operators of commercial buildings to reduce their heating bills and carbon footprint by up to half, without compromising on occupant comfort. It achieves this by giving building managers control over the heating of rooms on an individual basis, considering different occupancy levels and needs, whilst also letting the users adjust temperatures via a QR code available for each room.
Commercial buildings make up approximately 25 percent of carbon emissions from the whole of the built environment in the U.K. and progress towards net zero has, so far, been slow. A common issue is that outdated heating systems and practices result in the heating of empty rooms, which can occur as much as 70 percent of the time.
However, the energy reduction race can be confusing with many options such as insulation, double-glazed windows, LEDs, and heat pumps on offer. In today’s world, the priority is to find quick, low cost and non-disruptive responses to the rise in energy costs and carbon reduction objectives, and EcoSync delivers that.
Company Will be Able to Grow Its Team
With this new funding, EcoSync will be able to grow its team to further develop the AI features of its solution to make it smarter and even more effective. It will also get the opportunity to roll out exciting product enhancements to existing customers.
Having secured close to $2 million in the last two years through initial investments, grants and seed funding, EcoSync will now focus on executing its growth plan and scaling its deployment to new and existing clients for the current heating season. With installation and activation possible in less than a day, no planning or building regulations required and no disruption to building fabric or occupants, savings start to accrue immediately. The funding helps to put EcoSync on the map for commercial property owners, occupiers, sustainability consultants and retrofit specifiers giving them a quick and easy first step to significantly reduce carbon emissions. As an added benefit, the never-previously-available data generated can be used to make better decisions for the more complex next steps on the decarbonization pathway, which can be part funded by the savings generated.
Latest investments have come from existing investors, RO Capital Partners, the RO Group’s investment arm, the Oxford Innovation EIS growth fund and OION Angels including Richard van der Knaap, Founder and Director of B2B SaaS business MCS Global Ltd, demonstrating their continued confidence in the value of EcoSync’s technology and its potential benefits across the wider commercial buildings sector.
EcoSync is excited to also welcome increased investment from angel investors Steve Headington, and Bruce Melizan, Chairman at EcoSync and ES Global Ltd. The rest of the funding was raised via Crowdcube.
Easy-to-Install Way to Control the Building
Nick Pledge, CEO, EcoSync, commented, “Commercial buildings are a big source of carbon emissions and are heavily impacted by the current energy cost crisis, and we provide a quick and economical answer to both issues. Our solution is not simply a new tool to visualize data, it is a straightforward, low cost, intelligent and easy-to-install way to dynamically control the building and deliver substantial results and quick payback for owners and occupiers alike.
“This funding will allow us to reach a cash positive position where we will become self-funding, which is a very important step in our development as a company. It gives us the opportunity to expand into other sectors beyond higher education and grow our AI, sales and marketing functions to make the solution even more compelling and accelerate growth.”
Edward Rowlandson, Group Managing Director at RO Group, said, “We first invested in EcoSync as we were very impressed by the management team, and we saw the opportunity for EcoSync’s technology to help transform energy efficiency standards and respond to legislation coming into the commercial property sector. EcoSync’s advantage is the combination of technology, price, and ease of installation. Its competitive position is very compelling, particularly right now when budgets are increasingly under pressure.”
Richard Cooper, Managing Director at Oxford Innovation Finance (OION & Oxford Innovation EIS Growth Fund), said, “We first invested in EcoSync in late 2021 because it was an interesting technology with huge growth potential and we invested again due to the very large market for older buildings with wet radiators, especially in the U.K. In the next three to five years, we could see the business in several sectors working across the globe.”
