Mysa, a smart-thermostat company based in St. John’s, Nfld., has acquired the intellectual property of United States smart thermostat firm Zen Ecosystems.
This purchase moves Mysa beyond thermostats for people’s homes and into the commercial market.
Canada is one of the largest consumers of electricity per person in the world.
This is Mysa’s first acquisition since it was launched in 2016. The startup shipped its first smart thermostats in 2018. Mysa has developed smart thermostats for electric HVAC systems, with the goal of allowing households to better manage their energy consumption.
Reducing energy consumption is a key part of reaching global climate change goals. According to the World Economic Forum, “reducing global energy demand and decelerating consumption can close the gap between promises and actions in tackling the climate crisis.”
Canada in particular has an energy consumption problem. Despite being the thirty-ninth-largest country in terms of population, Canada is one of the largest consumers of electricity per person in the world. In 2020, it was the fourth-largest consumer per person and the sixth-largest producer, globally. Reasons for this include Canada’s strong presence of energy industries, our demand for heating and air conditioning in different times of year, and our relatively high average incomes. Other countries with high energy use include Iceland, Norway, and Bahrain.
The World Economic Forum has noted a need to reduce energy consumption in order to meet net-zero emissions targets, which Canada has promised to do by 2050. Part of that is using greener energy options. The federal government has been making moves to promote green energy in Canada, with Bloomberg reporting that the country became the second-most favourable place to invest in green energy projects after related tax credits were introduced in the recent budget.
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Smart thermostats play one small part in helping with that energy reduction. The global market opportunity for them has been projected to reach $11.36 billion USD by 2027.
Mysa is backed by a grouping of climate-focused investors with Cycle Capital, which led its most recent funding round in 2021. At the time, Mysa pulled in $20.3 million CAD in an all-equity Series B round that also included Round13 Capital’s Earth Tech Fund, Climate Innovation Capital, and BDC’s Cleantech Practice among others.
“This acquisition is a natural step for Mysa as we continue to accelerate the complete electrification of heating and cooling,” said Joshua Green, Mysa co-founder and CEO. “Building on Zen’s amazing product design for central heating and cooling systems as well as commercial energy management, we’ll be able to provide even more value to our customers and bring about a cleaner, more sustainable future.”