ImpactAlpha, June 13 – As many as one in ten households in the U.K. are sometimes forced to choose between heating their homes and buying food.
Switchee, which makes smart thermostats that it sells to low-income housing landlords, allows them to use data from the devices to track energy consumption, light, motion, humidity and other factors in homes. The idea is to lower heating bills and provide landlords with data to help them maintain their properties.
Company founder Ian Napier says its goal is to cut fuel poverty among poor Britons and help counter problems created by “the poor or non-existent data about [landlords’] housing stock and resultant maintenance and repair inefficiencies.” Switchee conducted two years of pilots before rolling out its device nationally last year with public housing authorities and private landlords.
- Pre-Series A… Switchee raised the £1.3 million ($1.7 million) from the Fair by Design Fund, which is backed by Big Society Capital and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Contrarian Ventures and AU Capital Partners also supported the round.
