For most companies, utility meter reading is a time-sensitive and antiquated process.
Utility employees are tasked with reading each individual meter once a month, driving from house to house, neighborhood to neighborhood.
Boulder's Copper Labs is helping utilities become more efficient, providing real-time energy usage data to the consumers and companies with a wireless solution.
The company announced Thursday that it has raised $2 million in new financing to further build out its product and team.
Austin's Moonshots Capital led the round, along with new and existing investors that include Blue Bear Capital, Bull Creek Capital, Capital Factory and Service Provider Capital. As part of the deal, Craig Cummings, co-founder and general partner at Moonshots Capital, and Carolin Funk at Blue Bear Capital will both join Copper Labs’ board.
Copper Labs was founded in 2016 in an effort to make managing energy usage more sustainable and cost effective for both sides of the equation.
With Copper's wireless meter reader, both consumers and utilities can track energy usage in real-time from electric, gas and water meters.
It then produces actionable insights and generates consumer-friendly alerts that can reduce energy consumption when it matters most to the grid.
"Copper is the first company to show up with real-time data with most meters," CEO Dan Forman told Colorado Inno.
The company has five full-time employees and three contractors, and Forman expects that number to grow by 50 percent moving forward as Copper looks to make hires in engineering and sales.
“With the home energy management market projected to reach $12 billion by 2028, our investment in Copper Labs is a clear indication that we expect this company to continue to innovate and disrupt the market,” Cummings of Moonshots Capital said in a statement. “Copper’s frictionless deployment and unique access to meter data make it easier than ever for utilities to interact with their consumers.”
The company began commercial sales earlier this year, selling directly to utilities who then in turn offer the solution to their customers.
The company was founded by Jeff Mathews, a serial entrepreneur with two successful exits in the smart home and energy management market. His previous company Revolv was acquired by Nest in 2014.
