Sense Closes $14 Million Series A

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwired - Sep 1, 2016) -

• Shell Technology Ventures and Energy Impact Partners invest in home awareness platform Sense.
• The capital will be used to fuel growth and to accelerate the hiring of a world-class team.
• Investors cite Sense's innovative disaggregation technology, its consumer-centric approach, and its experienced founding team as key factors.

Sense, the home energy and awareness platform that interprets the power usage and activity of every device in the home, announced the close of a $14 million Series A financing led by Shell Technology Ventures (STV) and Energy Impact Partners (EIP), with participation from previous seed investors Capricorn Investment Group, Prelude Ventures, CRV, and hardware accelerator Bolt. In addition, Sense today announced the launch of solar compatibility and the Sense Android app (previously iOS only).

Founded by pioneers in speech recognition, Sense's patented machine learning technology measures power one million times per second, providing homeowners with real-time data and insights on individual device behavior (whether or not those devices are 'smart'). Sense's mission is to keep homeowners informed about what's happening in their homes; helping them make their homes safer, more efficient and more reliable. Customers rely on Sense for a wide range of uses including checking what time their kids get home, monitoring their home appliances, determining whether they left appliances running or doors open, and identifying how to reduce their energy costs.

"We've been excited by the level of consumer engagement and the wide variety of ways in which our customers are using Sense. Since our pre-order program launched late last year, our two most common requests were solar connectivity and Android -- today we're pleased to announce that both are now available," said Michael Phillips, CEO and co-founder of Sense. "The Series A funding marks an important time in our company's growth as we will use it to build out our team, expand our feature set, and enhance our device detection capabilities."

The home energy management market is growing rapidly and expected to exceed $22 billion in revenue by 2023. "Data and machine intelligence are becoming an increasingly important part of unlocking value in automation and control of a connected energy platform," said Geert van de Wouw, Managing Director of STV. "Sense has developed a leading technology with state of the art disaggregation capabilities leveraging their expertise as pioneers in signal processing. Shell is exploring opportunities to bring Sense's capabilities to our business and customers."

Sense's scalable technology will drive changes not only for homeowners, but ultimately, for utilities as well. "We look for emerging companies with real answers to today's utility challenges - solutions that will help our utility partners engage with their customers and provide these customers with new, cutting edge technologies for the home," commented Hans Kobler, CEO and Managing Partner at EIP. "Sense goes beyond simple reporting of residential energy information to providing broad home intelligence. Information and intelligence are the foundation of a smart home."

For more information on Sense, please visit www.Sense.com. 

About Sense
Sense's mission is to make all homes intelligent by keeping people informed about what's happening in their homes, and helping to make them safer, more efficient, and more reliable. Founded in 2013 by pioneers in speech recognition, Sense uses machine learning technology to provide real-time insights on device behavior, even for those devices that are not "smart." Customers rely on Sense for a wide range of uses including checking what time their kids get home, monitoring their home appliances, determining whether they left appliances running or doors open, and identifying how to reduce their energy costs. Sense is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. To make sense of your energy, visit: https://sense.com 

About Shell Technology Ventures
Shell Technology Ventures ("STV") is the corporate venture capital arm of Royal Dutch Shell plc ("Shell"). With major offices in Europe and the USA, STV invests in technology companies to enhance the development of new technologies that have the potential to create substantial deployment value in Shell. Continuing Shell's tradition in venture capital since 1998, STV's investment focus includes oil & gas, renewable green energy technologies, clean tech and IT. STV co-invests with other corporate investors, venture capital funds and angels and will invest in both early stage and late stage (growth capital) companies. For more information, please visit http://www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation/innovating-together/shell-technology-ventures.html

About Energy Impact Partners
Energy Impact Partners is a collaborative strategic investment fund that invests in companies optimizing energy consumption and improving sustainable energy generation. Through close collaboration with its strategic investor base, EIP seeks to bring the best companies, buying power and vision in the industry to bear on the emerging energy landscape. EIP's partners include Southern Company (NYSE: SO), National Grid (NYSE: NGG), Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL), Ameren (NYSE: AEE) and Great Plains Energy (NYSE: GXP). For more information, visit www.energyimpactpartners.com.