Boston Business Journal: Ekotrope home energy design SaaS finds fans, including Ed Begley Jr.
Boston Business Journal by Kyle Alspach, VC Editor
Date: Monday, August 27, 2012, 10:04am EDT
Screen shot from Ekotrope videoActor and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr., right, discusses the Ekotrope software with his wife, Rachelle Carson-Begley, and Ekotrope co-founder Cy Kilbourn.
VC Editor-
Boston Business Journal
Cambridge startup Ekotrope has passed a key milestone for hitting it big in clean technology: Getting actor and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. to use its product. The company offers software-as-a-service which aims to dramatically simplify the process of comparing energy efficiency options in new house design.Comparisons that can take days or weeks — such as whether or not to deploy solar power, or what type of insulation, windows or lighting to use — can be done automatically using the software, according to Ekotrope. The software allows looks at energy efficiency and cost of components, offering a view of the payback period for environmentally-friendly design choices." We let you look at all the possibilities. It allows you to act in real-time," said Ekotrope co-founder and CEO Ziv Rozenblum.
"We're helping people make sure they're making the right decisions from day one."The Ekotrope software launched in January. In June the company worked with Begley, his wife Rachelle Carson-Begley and their architecture firm Studio William Hefner to help decide between energy-efficient components for the couple's new home in California. The couple, whose reality show "Living With Ed" focused on their environmentally-oriented lifestyle, acted in a video showing the use of the Ekotrope software in June. "I was always hoping there would be a one-stop shopping database to quantify those decisions and see which is best," Ed Begley Jr. says in the video. Other projects using Ekotrope include a 20-unit housing development in Easton, which is being designed by Anderson Porter Design and expected to break ground next year, and a Boy Scout camp in Rhode Island currently under design by architecture firm Oyster Works.
The software is aimed at the needs of architects and home builders, and works by importing AutoCAD or other home design data into the software. Ekotrope has just passed the 10-client mark, and is focused now on gaining market share, said Rozenblum, previously an executive at ARCHIBUS and Hewlett-Packard. The company has raised about $1 million in angel funding since its founding in 2010, and is now working to raise a Series A round, he said. The idea for the company was initially inspired by MIT engineering professor Ed Crawley, who was looking for an energy-efficient design for a home he was building in 2009. The company's board includes Ken Lazarus, the CEO of Lilliputian Systems and founding board member at DataXu.