Photo Credit: Liberty Property Trust
WegoWise made a name for itself in the multi-family energy efficiency business, but the Boston-based company also has its eyes on the larger commercial market.
To make inroads with commercial buildings, WegoWise purchased Melon Power in December. Now, WegoWise has raised an additional $3 million from Boston Community Capital to expand its platform.
WegoWise already has more than 225 million square feet under its belt, mostly of which is in multi-family residences. But there are a lot of similarities between commercial and multi-family, including the problem of split incentives between who pays for energy and who pays for upgrades. About 10 percent of WegoWise’s current customer base owns both types of real estate.
Melon Power offers low-cost benchmarking analytics that have been integrated into WegoWise’s platform. Benchmarking energy use for large buildings is an increasing trend in cities and states, including WegoWise’s hometown of Boston.
Benchmarking commercial buildings can be a first step for real estate managers and owners starting to think about energy efficiency. WegoWise’s commercial offering will target three main customers: auditors, building portfolio owners and programs that track efficiency, such as utility programs, LEED or Massachusetts’ Low-Income Energy Affordability Network.
“WegoWise’s mission is to create a universal tool to improve the efficiency of the built environment,” said Andrew Chen, CEO of WegoWise. “Boston Community Capital has been an ideal partner in supporting our development of low-cost efficiency solutions for all types of properties -- multifamily buildings, single family homes, and now commercial buildings as well.”
After integrating Melon Power, WegoWise announced it landed a contract with Liberty Property Trust (NYSE:LRY) to offer data analytics to nearly 3 billion square feet of Liberty’s holdings. Liberty owns more than 80 million square feet of office and industrial space.
Unlike other building energy analytics companies that offer software-based audits or information for deep retrofits, WegoWise is focused on the low-hanging fruit at a low cost. The dashboard is also not just for electricity; it also shows water, gas and oil consumption. The product starts at $5 per building per month.
But WegoWise stops short of installing sensors or diagnosing the ills of a poorly performing building. Instead, the company just brings some visibility in an easy-to-understand web portal that is supported by sophisticated analytics. WegoWise’s offering is really just the first step for owners or managers to understand their building’s energy performance, but it is a first step that many still have not taken.
WegoWise has raised a total of $4.9 from Boston Community Capital.
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