Billionaire-backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures has made another long-term bet in a Bay State startup that aligns with the fund’s broader mission of fighting climate change.
Westwood-based enVerid Systems, a startup that develops HVAC load reduction technology, raised $20 million in a Series B round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures with participation from Ajax Strategies, Building Ventures and OurCrowd.
The company will direct funds from this round to scale support and operations, increase investments in product development and add new distribution partners.
“We are honored to have this incredible group of investors backing our vision to make the world a cleaner, healthier place—both inside and out—by commercializing technology that delivers energy savings and healthier indoor air quality for commercial buildings,” enVerid Systems CEO Christian Weeks said in a statement. “This funding will allow enVerid to increase its investment in product development and expand our market coverage with additional distribution partners.”
Where traditional commercial HVAC designs rely on massive volumes of outside air to maintain indoor air quality, often resulting in a 30 to 50 percent waste in HVAC energy consumption, enVerid claims that its products significantly lower upfront system costs and reduce annual energy consumption by 20 to 30 percent while improving indoor air quality.
The startup has been perfecting this technology since its founding in 2010. In 2018, the U.S. Department of Energy ranked it one of the top three energy-saving technologies for commercial buildings.
Founded in 2016, Breakthrough Energy Ventures is a global investor group that includes billionaires like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma, Richard Branson, Michael Bloomberg and Mukesh Ambani. Its strict criteria for investing is that the company must be developing technologies with the potential to reduce “about 1 percent of projected 2050 global emissions.” In envisioning a carbonless future, the fund's focus areas include electricity, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing and buildings.
