Participated · Series A · Feb 2023

Gradient Comfort was founded by thermal scientists and builds HVAC products starting with the Gradient, a window heat pump that uses climate-friendlier R32 refrigerant and is designed to be quiet, efficient and not block the window. The company says its product aims to deliver heating and cooling with significantly lower carbon impact and targets a 95% carbon reduction when used to both heat and cool. Gradient Comfort plans to use new capital to advance design, deployment and manufacturability of its air‑sourced window heat pump units for cold climates, expand into business‑to‑business channels, and develop software services (hardware monitoring, maintenance, leasing, and demand‑response/VPP integration). The firm also intends to add headcount and build new products as it scales operations. Financially, Gradient Comfort closed a $9M Series A follow‑on that brings total Series A funding to $27.5M and has additionally secured more than $9M in non‑dilutive government grants from the U.S. Department of Energy, the California Energy Commission, and the California Strategic Growth Council. In August 2022 the company was awarded a seven‑year contract to develop and deliver 10,000 cold‑climate packaged window heat pump units by NYCHA/NYPA/NYSERDA under the Clean Heat for All Challenge. Gradient builds HVAC products aimed at cooling and heating homes without the environmental harm of traditional systems; its first product is a replacement for the window AC that uses heat pump technology and a climate-friendly refrigerant. The company was founded by thermal scientists and includes talent from Tesla and Nest, positioned to reduce carbon emissions from heating and cooling. Gradient plans to develop a second product: cold-climate packaged window heat pump units, and to expand solutions for multi-family homes. It also intends to add services such as hardware monitoring, maintenance, leasing, and demand-response integrations with virtual power plants. Gradient has secured more than $9M in non-dilutive government grants from the U.S. Department of Energy, California Energy Commission, and California Strategic Growth Council, in addition to venture funding. In August 2022 the company won the Clean Heat for All Challenge and was awarded a seven-year contract to develop and deliver thousands of cold-climate packaged window heat pump units for NYC agencies.