SAN MATEO, CA — (Marketwired) — 12/11/13 — today emerges from an eighteen-month in-market beta period to announce the company-s official launch across millions of households. With a $2.5M Series A round led by Clean Pacific Ventures, the company is ramping up to help consumers purchase renewable power and energy efficient products through its network of retail businesses, competitive power suppliers, and regulated utilities.
“The residential sector makes up 21 percent of all carbon emissions in the United States, and emissions are only going to increase if we continue on the current trajectory,” says Ross Chanin, Founder and CEO of American Efficient. “Most Americans believe that we are stuck looking to elected officials and legislative action as the only mechanism for change, but that-s simply not true. In reality, consumers like you and me hold significant power in changing the course. I started this company to help us take command.”
Almost half of all Americans live in electric choice states in which residents can switch to 100 percent renewable power in minutes, and people everywhere can choose to buy energy efficient products for their homes. The innovation behind American Efficient is building an approach that generates mass adoption of renewable power and energy efficient products by communicating with consumers via preexisting, trusted networks.
In this respect, American Efficient leads the rising wave of “cleansoft” companies, which are designed to deploy software and business model innovations rather than longer-cycle, new infrastructure to help green our energy system.
Building on the transition to competitive power supply markets across 50 million U.S. households, American Efficient taps the influence of local, trusted retail businesses to market renewable power plans to consumers via the company-s Clean Choice network.
Sean Schickedanz, Managing Partner of Clean Pacific Ventures and an investor in American Efficient, considers the core problems related to consumer adoption of renewable power to be those of product branding and consumer trust — problems that can be solved with cutting-edge software and marketing efforts, rather than long-cycle infrastructure plays.
“Most people either don-t know that they can switch to renewable power or, in the event they-ve been marketed to, think it-s just too good to be true. A company that bridges that gap and does so in a market of this size creates considerable value,” says Schickedanz. Residential energy bills in electric choice states total $42 billion annually.
Activated by American Efficient-s growing network of retail businesses such as grocery stores, coffee shops, and restaurants, Clean Choice funds gift cards to retail businesses in its network as a reward for when their customers sign up for renewable power.
Clean Choice is already live in retail locations across Baltimore, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and New Hampshire, and is adding new locations daily.
Officially launched by American Efficient this week, Dreamstreet is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that enables consumers to research energy efficient appliances and consumer electronics in real-time. Dreamstreet aggregates and compares the pricing, availability, photographs, and expert reviews of products available at local and online retailers, serving as a veritable Kayak.com for energy-consuming home products.
American Efficient will deliver Dreamstreet as a co-branded offering to consumers in partnership with regulated utilities and competitive power suppliers — utilities and suppliers that maintain preexisting relationships with 120 million U.S. households. Through these relationships, Dreamstreet will anticipate the need to replace an aging appliance, television, or HVAC system before a problem arises. The platform will then communicate this upcoming need to consumers, arming millions with the ability to consider the cost-savings of buying energy efficient at exactly the right time.
Dreamstreet launched this week across 2.2 million households in the State of Maryland in partnership with Baltimore Gas & Electric, Delmarva Power, PEPCO Maryland, Potomac Edison, and the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative.
American Efficient puts the power to fight climate change in your hands. Founder & CEO, Ross Chanin, is a graduate of Stanford Law School, a former co-founder of Reputation.com, and a former member of the Kerry-Edwards speechwriting team. He has assembled a team from top institutions like MIT and Stanford as well as leading corporations such as CitiGroup. American Efficient cites a key advisor network drawn from the energy sector and the consumer web, including Ron Binz (former nominee of President Obama to Chair the FERC), Jim Sweeney (Director of the Precourt Energy Efficiency Center at Stanford), Shawn Bercuson (formerly of Groupon and Lightbank), and Adam Jackson (Co-Founder & CEO of Doctor on Demand).
Sunshine Mugrabi
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