Across the country, Canadians are looking for ways to reduce energy use at home, both to support environmental protection and to cut costs. An awareness of peak hours and the appliances demanding the most energy is helpful but can become a lot to manage.
In an effort to take some burden off the consumer, Canadian cleantech company Ecotagious developed technologies that help utility providers give their customers personalized suggestions based on when they use their appliances and peer comparisons, and help customers receive energy insights through portals and virtual assistants.
The company saw record growth in 2018 and recently landed eight new contracts, which meant they needed working capital to hire more people.
“Last year our revenues grew by 150% and we added eight utility customers. But with exponential growth comes the challenge of having sufficient working capital to rapidly scale up and deliver on new contracts—a common occurrence for high-growth cleantech companies like ours,” said Bruce Townson, Ecotagious CEO. “However, receiving support from EDC has enabled us to continue to deliver verified, industry-leading savings to our clients and their customers and makes us very competitive.”
Financing through Export Development Canada’s Export Guarantee Program helped the company secure the operating line they needed to move ahead.
“Deals like this highlight how Canada’s financial institutions are coming together to help early-stage cleantech companies succeed internationally,” said Carl Burlock, Senior Vice-President of Financing and International Growth Capital at EDC. “In this case, BMO, First West Capital and EDC all saw the potential of Ecotagious and the advantage of ensuring the company’s contracts were executed successfully.”
EDC is Canada’s largest financier of clean technology companies, having provided $2 billion worth of export support in 2018. Supporting this innovative and fast-growing sector of the Canadian economy has been a priority for EDC since 2012.
Click here for a snapshot of EDC’s 2018 Cleantech results
About Ecotagious
Ecotagious Inc. turns data into energy savings for utility clients. Its SaaS-based Powerful Insights™ platform leverages machine learning, smart meter disaggregation and behavioral science to provide utilities' residential customers with appliance-level feedback and personalized insights across all channels. Ecotagious is a private company based in Vancouver, Canada.
Ecotagious
Salim Popatia
(604) 225-2019
Salim.popatia@ecotagious.com
