The Venture Codex

Led · Seed · Mar 2011

Retroficiency is a Boston-based provider of an on-demand Building Efficiency Intelligence (BEI) platform. Led by founder and CEO Bennett Fisher, the company enables energy service providers and utilities to systematically and rapidly evaluate thousands of commercial building energy efficiency measures. Its platform addresses the needs of building engineers, facility managers, and financial decision makers. Retroficiency raised $3.32M in initial funding from Point Judith Capital and angel investors. As part of the transaction the company is acquiring Nexamp’s energy efficiency division, Clean Energy Solutions, and Zaid Ashai of Point Judith Capital will join Retroficiency’s board. The financing, acquisition and a set of senior hires will help the company scale to meet demand and target utilities. Retroficiency offers an enterprise software platform that generates building-specific energy models from basic inputs and a comprehensive dataset of tens of thousands of similar buildings. Its predictive analytics infer detailed equipment counts and performance (for example, lighting fixtures and ballast types) to estimate costs, savings, rebates, ENERGY STAR impacts and greenhouse gas reductions. The system’s optimization engine evaluates thousands of retrofit combinations and builds packages that meet customer goals such as energy reduction, payback period, or budget constraints. All inputs and inferences are transparent and editable by users. In pilot testing the company reports its assessments were at least as accurate as traditional on-foot inspections, allowing faster, lower-cost audits. Early customers include facility management firms and ESCOs; the Retroficiency team has been compiling commercial building and efficiency data since 2008.