Essess is the World's First Big Data Company Focused on Commercial and Residential Energy Efficiency

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Essess (www.essess.com), a leading provider of automated energy assessments for commercial and residential buildings, today announced the closing of its $6 million Series A funding round. Vocap Ventures is the largest institutional investor in this round of funding, with additional investment from DFJ Athena, Minder Cheng, Richard Tsai and the company's CEO, Storm Duncan.

Essess is the world's first Big Data company addressing commercial and residential energy efficiency. The company's high-resolution thermal imaging technology allows for the capture, identification and quantification of energy loss profiles for millions of buildings per month.

"The CleanTech industry is going through a fundamental transformation, with Big Data becoming a critical enabler of new opportunities for reducing global energy consumption. Essess clearly provides the first viable and scalable technology for capturing and capitalizing on the benefits of the data revolution for residential and commercial energy efficiency. We look forward to supporting Essess leadership as they realize their goal of enabling energy efficiency," said Vinny Olmstead of Vocap Ventures.

The technology behind Essess' products was originally conceived at the MIT Field Intelligence Laboratory. In April of 2011 the company was spun out of MIT, and is being led by Storm Duncan as Chief Executive Officer. Duncan is widely recognized as a proven leader in the technology industry, with nearly 20 years of experience advising industry leaders such as Google, Microsoft, SAP, VeriSign, Symantec, Hewlett Packard, and Intuit, amongst others.

"The Big Data market is forecasted to grow at an astounding CAGR of 58% between now and 2017, hitting the $50 billion within five years," said Jeff Kelly, Wikibon's Big Data analyst. "Big Data is the new definitive source of competitive advantage across all industries. For those organizations such as Essess that understand and embrace the new reality of Big Data, the possibilities for new innovation, improved agility, and increased profitability are nearly endless."

"I have had the opportunity to work with some of the most dynamic and innovative leaders in the technology space, from Steve Jobs to the pioneers at Google and Facebook. I have witnessed first hand the evolution of Big Data in the technology landscape at many of these companies, and understand the benefits this can provide to many industries -- including the energy industry. I see Big Data for energy efficiency as the most important advancement in this sector, and believe it will fundamentally enhance and simplify the ability of businesses and homeowners to evaluate and reduce their energy bills," said Storm Duncan, Chief Executive Officer, Essess. "Strategic investment from major firms like Vocap, DFJ Athena, as well as industry leaders such as Minder Cheng, is not only a testament to our unique approach to CleanTech, but it also demonstrates the commercial strength of our offering. By leveraging the greatest minds at MIT across a number of disciplines, we have created a proprietary technology that is truly game changing."

About Essess
Essess is the world's first Big Data company focused on commercial and residential energy efficiency. Essess' cutting-edge energy loss detection and diagnostics products, conceived out of the MIT Field Intelligence Laboratory, automatically detect, identify and quantify energy inefficiencies for buildings. By identifying all specific sources of energy inefficiencies in buildings, Essess is able to automatically generate tangible and actionable solutions to those inefficiencies along with the economics of each solution. Essess drives meaningful environmental change by simply helping building owners understand how to reduce their energy bills.  For more information visit www.essess.com. 

SOURCE Essess