A home energy assistant which uses artificial intelligence to help reduce energy bills has raised more than £1.2m through crowdfunding site Crowdcube.
Verv, a brand which sits under London-based machine learning specialist Green Running Ltd, raised the investment in return for a 4.72 per cent stake in the business after setting an initial target of £500,000.
The home energy assistant provides real-time updates on energy usage, broken down by individual appliances, through its mobile app. It can also analyse the energy efficiency of each appliance and suggest more eco-friendly options.
The funding will be used to scale up manufacturing for the company’s smart home product and further develop its blockchain-based energy trading solution.
Verv 2.0 is a peer-to-peer (P2P) solution which allows consumers who have renewable energy supplies to sell surplus power directly to their neighbours.
“We’re on a mission to make homes smarter and more efficient by tackling energy at its core and it’s great to see that so many people share our vision,” said chief executive and founder Peter Davies.
“With this investment, we look forward to launching Verv and to moving forward with Verv 2.0.”
He added: “We entered into crowdfunding as we wanted a percentage of the company to be genuinely owned by the consumer.
“To receive this level of investment from the public is an incredible endorsement for all of the hard work the Verv team has done so far and we’re excited to have brought on board an incredible 1,217 crowd investors join us on our journey.”