PlotWatt Wins GE Ecomagination Challenge; Secures $1 Million in Seed Funding

DURHAM, N.C., June 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- PlotWatt, the company helping individuals and businesses reduce energy bills through personalized smart meter data analysis, is the winner of GE's Ecomagination Challenge, Powering Your Home. The company also announced it has secured $1 million in a seed round of funding led by Felicis Ventures.  

The PlotWatt residential product's algorithms analyze smart meter data for individuals in real-time to figure out appliance-level energy cost without monitoring the individual appliances. This enables the company to offer its product for free, a platform which would otherwise cost more than a thousand dollars. The PlotWatt Energy Dashboard consolidates the insight into easy-to-understand feedback and recommendations. Currently in Beta, PlotWatt provides customized money-saving recommendations that have cut users' energy bills by as much as 50 percent (e.g. "Raising your thermostat by 1 degree will save you $24.00 this month.").

Inspired by the overwhelming response from its current Beta users, PlotWatt entered Powering Your Home, Phase II of GE's Ecomagination Challenge, an open competition for businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators and students from around the world to share their best ideas on how to improve the future of energy. PlotWatt is one of five winners, out of 856 submissions. As a winner, the company received a$100,000 grant it will use for infrastructure expansion aimed at serving a massive number of customers.

"We are thrilled to win GE's Ecomagination Challenge. It is strong validation of our efforts to educate consumers on, manage, and reduce home energy costs," said Luke Fishback, CEO and founder of PlotWatt.

Additionally, PlotWatt recently launched a commercial product for multi-location establishments, such as chain restaurants. The PlotWatt Commercial Energy Platform analyzes energy consumption, identifies waste and communicates opportunities for energy bill savings. The commercial offering includes analysis and recommendations – delivered via Web, email, mobile and SMS – that will introduce more than 10 percent monthly savings to commercial business' energy bills.

The company also announced that Felicis Ventures led its $1 million seed round. These funds will allow PlotWatt to rapidly scale its platform to meet the demands of both the commercial and residential markets.

"PlotWatt is one of the most exciting companies we've come across, leading the charge to make energy consumption more efficient, with just software," said Aydin Senkut, Founder and Managing Director, Felicis Ventures. "Their work directly impacts both the consumer and business side of the smart grid which will lead to significant energy savings by optimizing consumption. This has the potential to benefit everyone from the individual households to large corporations around the world."

For more information, or to join the Beta, visit www.PlotWatt.com.

About PlotWatt:

Headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, PlotWatt is the most cost-effective and technologically advanced way for consumers and businesses to reduce their energy bill. PlotWatt's cloud-based algorithms analyze smart meter data and provide insight, feedback and recommendations on ways for both individuals and commercial establishments to save on energy. For more information, or to join the Beta, visit www.PlotWatt.com.

About Felicis Ventures:

Founded in 2006 by Aydin Senkut, Felicis Ventures is a seed fund backed by institutional as well as high profile individual investors and based in Palo Alto, California. It is focused on supporting the best and brightest technology entrepreneurs with capital, mentorship and connections. Felicis Ventures' portfolio is comprised of leading mobile and consumer Internet companies including Brightroll, Bump, Crowdflower, Erply, Imageshack, Inkling, Meraki, Posterous, Practice Fusion, Wildfire and Yume Networks. Recent exits of portfolio companies include Aardvark (acquired by Google), GeoAPI (acquired by Twitter), Mint (acquired by Intuit), Milo (acquired by eBay), Mob.ly (acquired by Groupon), Mochi Media (acquired by Shanda Games), Plusmo (acquired by AT&T), Powerset (acquired by Microsoft) and Tapulous (acquired by Disney). For more information, visit http://www.felicis.com.

SOURCE PlotWatt