EnergyX Solutions, developer of an online energy auditing platform, has raised $500,000 from MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund, with the money going towards further expansion in the US, where CEO and co-founder Nishaant Sangaavi said there is a larger market to tap into.
“There are around 10 to 12 utilities in the Canadian market,” Sangaavi said. “When I look at the US, you’ve got around 150 to 200 utilities you can target. The market increases by 10 times, which is why the market in the U.S. becomes attractive to us.”
Toronto-based EnergyX assists utilities and energy retailers with MyEnergyXpert, an online audit and marketplace platform, designed to increase customer engagement in energy efficient programs. The company is a graduate of Ryerson’s Digital Media Zone, L-SPARK, and the Creative Destruction Lab.
“The goal is to continue to scale and grow the team, and if we do that correctly, the sky’s the limit for us.”
Last August, EnergyX raised $1.3 million, which was also put towards the company’s US expansion. Sangaavi said EnergyX’s goal is to help three million homes and businesses reduce their energy costs by up to 25 percent. He estimates that if every home in North America used MyEnergyXpert, greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by up to 10 percent. Additionally, Sangaavi said the company has plans to expand beyond the US within two years.
“When I see us growing and expanding beyond the US, I would see Europe as the next destination for us,” he said, noting that he and his fellow co-founder and CTO Alex Corneglio have backgrounds working in Europe and have an understanding of how the market works.
In North America, EnergyX is working with companies including Enbridge, Gas Distribution, and CLEAResult.
MyEnergyXpert’s customer engagement tools use AI and machine learning to help its enterprise clients increase customer participation in energy efficiency programs. It then tracks the program enrollment process and collects behavioural data, that information is then stored into information systems, and used to make more accurate predictions on customer engagement.
“That’s been a big step for us,” said Sangaavi. “What we’re doing is helping to predict energy models and helping homes have better and much stronger recommendations when it comes to energy-saving opportunities.”
He finds that the demand for the platform has been larger than anticipated, so EnergyX is looking to grow faster than originally planned.
“Our platform has been proven, the solution is validated, the goal is to continue to scale and grow the team, and if we do that correctly, the sky’s the limit for us,” Sangaavi said.
Featured image via Pixabay.
