Sense
Our Investment in Sense
Reducing global carbon emissions by making homes smarter and efficient
Relying on energy to heat, cool, and operate a multitude of appliances, housing has been attributed to 17 - 21% of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Much of the carbon footprint stems from utilities which, in many places, run largely on fossil fuels.
Seeking to address the home’s role in climate change, a growing movement has emerged to electrify the built environment, shift its consumption to renewable energy, and drive energy efficiency through the deployment of intelligent systems. Previously, we have written about companies we’ve invested in, like BlocPower and David Energy, that are tackling this challenge from different angles.
A 2019 breakdown of global greenhouse gas emissions from households (Source: PBS News).
Striving to make homes smarter and more energy efficient, Sense, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, provides consumers with insights into how energy is used in their homes. Initially launched as a home energy monitor for consumers — a smart home product that easily installs in a residence’s electrical panel — Sense utilizes machine learning and artificial intelligence to learn the electrical signatures of various appliances to provide homeowners with granular visibility into their energy use. Equipped with an understanding of how much energy is being used, as well as when and where, homeowners are empowered to find opportunities to save money on electricity. Through the Sense app, users are alerted to when appliances — like a dishwasher — are running and how much it costs, as well as when energy on the grid is optimally generated from renewables.
We’re pleased to announce our investment in Sense and support its team, led by founders Michael Phillips, Christopher Micali, and Ryan Houlette. Recently announcing its $105 million Series C, Sense has assembled a panoply of industry partners and is poised to catapult its offerings to millions of homes across the U.S, Europe, and Asia. Further, we’re excited about its next evolution: embedding Sense intelligence as updatable software in the growing market of smart meters being installed across the world.
What is Sense?
Using machine learning and artificial intelligence, Sense provides homeowners with real-time insights that show how energy is being used in their homes. Users of Sense’s Home Energy Monitor are able to not only understand energy use on an appliance level, but also identify opportunities to both save money and consume energy when it's cheapest and cleanest.
Sense users can view a range of energy-use insights.
Sense is actively pursuing a broader and more ambitious vision. By deploying its technology as a software application and embedded intelligence for the growing landscape of smart meters, the company is positioning itself to expand its energy monitoring and management capabilities considerably.
With the next generation of homes increasingly incorporating a range of clean energy devices — batteries, solar panels, generators, and others — Sense will enable homeowners to consolidate their insights and control and, in effect, serve as the operating system for home energy.
Why did we invest?
Compelling Founder-Market Fit
Operating on smart meters, Sense intelligence will be able to monitor and manage home energy across the entire home down to the device level.
Sense’s CEO Michael Phillips, VP of Product Christopher Micali, and VP of Engineering Ryan Houlette founded Sense in 2013. Beginning his career as a research scientist at MIT, Michael pioneered speech recognition AI. He then founded SpeechWorks, a leading provider of speech technology, which had a successful IPO in 2000 and was later acquired. He went on to found Vlingo, which commercialized voice-enabled virtual assistants on hundreds of millions of mobile phones in the mid-aughts. At Vlingo, Christopher served as a product manager and software architect and, among many achievements, successfully co-developed products with Samsung, Nokia, and other major companies. With over 25 years of experience in software engineering, software architecture, and management, Ryan formerly served as a Senior Architect at Vlingo where he led the development of its speech recognition service architecture. Vlingo was acquired in 2012.
Seasoned startup entrepreneurs, Michael, Ryan and Christopher have built an impressive team that is applying its technical and operational experience to tackle the climate crisis by making homes smarter and more energy efficient.
Strategic Partners Providing Scale
Seeing clear synergies with Sense’s technology, a number of major industry leaders — including Schneider Electric, Landis+Gyr, and others — have partnered with Sense to expand its roll-out across their home energy offerings.
Respectively the maker of smart electric panels and smart meters, Schneider Electric and Landis+Gyr have a global market presence and offer an effective path for Sense to scale its technology in homes across the world.
With an experienced team at the helm and addressing climate change at the core of its mission, Sense aims to play a key role in the clean energy transition and help build a future where the home is electrified and intelligently managed.
