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Comfy has secured $12 million in new venture capital funding, which will enable the company to develop new Building Internet of Things features and offerings. “We’re looking at ways we can curate other building systems,” says Lindsay Baker, president. Right now, the Comfy app is focused on the HVAC system. The company plans to develop a suite of applications beyond HVAC.
Comfy is best known for enabling occupants to use a mobile app to obtain immediate response from the HVAC system when they indicate that they are too warm or too cold; that immediate response — 10 minutes of warm or cool air — doesn’t change system set points. The app also uses machine learning to make zone-by-zone dynamic adjustments of set points and schedules, based on occupant preferences and patterns. Comfy is subscription-based (SaaS) software that operates in the cloud. It is contracted in over 3.5 million square feet throughout five countries.
One possible new application is lighting control. For one client, Comfy has deployed a lighting feature to enable occupants to turn the lights back on after hours.
The company is working to extend its people-centric approach to improve numerous aspects of the office experience, including lighting control and other integrations in its partner ecosystem. For new applications, “we’re thinking about the user experience,” says Baker. “We will be doing R&D to determine what a delightful user experience would be.”
The $12 million Series B funding round was led by enterprise cloud venture capital firm Emergence Capital. Existing investors Claremont Creek Ventures and Westly Group also participated in the round.
Two other investors are better known to facility managers: CBRE Group, Inc., the world’s largest commercial real estate services company, and Microsoft Ventures. "CBRE is testing Comfy in some of their offices, and working with Comfy at CBRE client sites," says Baker.
“Our investment in Comfy represents one of the many ways we support innovation that improves productivity,” said Nagraj Kashyap, corporate vice president, Microsoft Ventures. The funding will also enable the company to expand its market presence, Baker says.
For more information about Comfy, visit https://comfyapp.com/.
