BlocPower is a Black owned climate technology startup that transforms antiquated buildings into greener, smarter, and healthier facilities with efficient heating and cooling systems.
Buildings account for around 40% of US energy consumption. Small and medium sized buildings overconsume energy per square foot because they do not usually have the capital and technical expertise to access high efficiency equipment for their buildings.
As a Public Benefit Corporation, BlocPower partners with utilities, community leaders and institutions, and building owners to identify unhealthy, energy-wasting buildings (non-profits, houses of worship, schools, small businesses or multi-family residences) to retrofit.
Their machine learning platform determines which retrofits will produce the most energy savings at scale and uses the cloud and IoT to gather data and remotely monitor energy consumption.
By installing modern, efficient, all electric heating and cooling equipment, BlocPower improves indoor air quality and reduces or eliminates fossil fuel use, saving building owners 20 to 70 percent on energy costs.
To fund these projects, BlocPower created an innovative financing solution that enables small and medium sized building owners to bring energy efficiency improvements to their properties with no out-of-pocket cost.
Yesterday, the company announced a $63 million Series A round. The round, which was comprised of $55 million in debt, and $8 million in equity, was led by American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact, AccelR8 and The Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, with participation from Kapor Capital, Elemental Excelerator, CityRock Venture Partners, The Schmidt Family Foundation and Salesforce Ventures.
Retrofit project investors are repaid using utility bill savings generated by the solar and energy efficiency retrofits.
So far, BlocPower has completed retrofits in more than 1,000 buildings in New York City and has projects underway in 24 cities, including Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Oakland.
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