WaterSmart Software is a San Francisco-based customer engagement platform for water utilities led by CEO Robin Gilthorpe. The cloud-based platform uses analytics and behavioral science techniques to increase customer engagement and drive household actions that save water, energy and money. Its tools allow utility managers to segment customer water consumption data, generate targeted communications, and identify operational efficiencies. The company plans to use the new capital to scale the business by expanding sales and investing in additional platform capabilities. WaterSmart recently closed a $7M Series B to support these efforts. The company's board includes Steve Westly, Will Rosenzweig, Steve Bennet, Robin Gilthorpe and Peter Yolles; Hal Harvey of Energy Innovation will join the board in conjunction with the funding. WaterSmart offers a turn-key, cloud-based platform that integrates utility metering and billing data and uses analytics and behavioral science to drive conservation. Its software personalizes recommendations for residential customers and reportedly increases customer engagement threefold while reducing residential water demand by up to 5% in six months. The company has deployed contracts with utilities across California, Colorado, and Texas, including East Bay MUD, Irvine Ranch Water District, and the cities of Sacramento, Davis, and Newport Beach. WaterSmart’s enterprise product includes analytics that allow utility managers to view usage, track program performance, and identify efficiencies. The company was incubated by Menlo Incubator and has won industry recognition including Imagine H2O’s water efficiency prize and an Artemis Top 50 Water Company listing. WaterSmart plans to use the Series A proceeds to expand sales and marketing and to bring its customer engagement platform to water utilities throughout North America. WaterSmart Software offers a turnkey, cloud-based platform for water utilities to educate residential customers about their water use and deliver personalized conservation recommendations. The company combines analytics and behavioral science techniques to increase customer engagement, elevate consumer interest in saving water and money, and boost participation in utility-sponsored efficiency programs. Its enterprise product includes an analytics platform that allows utility managers to view how customers use water and where efficiencies can be generated. WaterSmart's service has been deployed by five California utilities and has demonstrated significant water savings, giving utilities avoided-cost and capital-expenditure benefits. The company says the additional funding will accelerate deployment of its solution to additional utility customers. WaterSmart closed a $1 million second round of financing led by Physic Ventures, with participation from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Menlo Incubator and Sand Hill Angels. WaterSmart offers white-labeled analytics and an online/print portal that lets utilities present personalized water-use information to homeowners, including neighborhood comparisons and tailored conservation recommendations. The platform analyzes hundreds of parameters—water consumption and billing, census and demographic data, real estate details, climate and weather—and even estimates ancillary gas and electricity savings from reduced hot-water use. Executives say the service helps homeowners understand bills, claim incentives and take the two or three most effective actions to save water. The company estimates it can help utilities and consumers reduce water consumption by about 2% this year. WaterSmart has pilots under way with major California water utilities and aims to move beyond proof of concept. The startup currently has six full-time employees and plans to hire ten more this year; it won the inaugural ImagineH2O competition in May 2010 and is often compared to energy-management players like OPower.

Total raised

$13M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Apr 2015