Clean Urban Energy gets $7M for smart buildings

The company gets support from Battery Ventures and Rho Ventures

It’s looking more and more like the future of clean tech lies in smart cities. Sure, you can provide a service or technology that the average individual or family can implement at their choosing (ex: “turn down the heater, turn up the AC, ride your bike more often” etc.), but the real key to effecting change is mass adoption, which happens when you have supportive infrastructure in place. So it makes sense that major cities like Los Angeles have adopted smart city technologies, like Streetline's Smart Park technology, which allows drivers to find open parking spaces on their smartphones and thereby cut down traffic. But another big area in the adoption of clean tech is commercial buildings, which is where companies like Clean Urban Energy shine. Clean Urban Energy (CUE) announced Thursday its $7 million Series A funding round led by Battery Ventures and Rho Ventures.

CUE’s Software-as-a-Service platform is designed to make commercial buildings more energy efficient by leveraging their thermal mass. What is thermal mass? Funny you should ask, because I asked the same thing. Thermal mass is the property that allows certain structures to absorb, store, and release energy due to their mass. For example, a structure made of concrete or stone absorbs energy more slowly and store it longer because of the mass of its material, which leads to fewer fluctuations in heating and cooling and less energy consumption.

CUE’s automated and scalable platform utilizes a commercial building’s thermal mass to optimize its energy storage capacity, essentially turning a “building into a battery. The company’s technology allows commercial buildings to reduce HVAC usage and cost by 15-30%.

“CUE represents a major milestone in the convergence of the cleantech and IT industries,” said Joshua Ruch of Rho Ventures, in a statement. “With a compelling SaaS-based solution, CUE is delivering a new standard of electricity savings that uses a building’s thermal mass and delivers significant megawatt storage capacity to grid operators. We believe CUE is well positioned to take advantage of a significant market opportunity in building energy efficiency.”

With this round of funding, Ruch and Jason Matlof from Battery Ventures will be joining CUE’s board of directors.

The company plans to use the new capital to fund a road show to drive development in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Houston.