Smart thermostat maker Ecobee announced it raised US$61 million in a Series C round of funding, the largest amount the company has ever raised since it was established in 2007.
The investment was led by Energy Impact Partners, and other investors include Thomvest, Relay Ventures and Amazon’s Alexa Fund. This is the second time for Alexa Fund to participate in Ecobee’s fundraising. It joined a US$35 million funding back in 2016.
“We’re excited to continue our support of Ecobee through participation in its Series C financing and our broader work together across a number of important Alexa capabilities,” said Paul Bernard, director of the Alexa Fund at Amazon, in a statement.
Alexa Fund pools US$100 million to make strategic investments in Alexa’s third-party partners and developers. The recently acquired smart doorbell maker Ring was also one of the teams supported by Alexa Fund.
The Ecobee investment seems natural – The ongoing rivalry between Amazon and Google in the smart home market makes Ecobee’s smart thermostat a necessary weapon for Amazon to combat Nest’s flagship learning thermostat.
According to Ecobee, the company has successfully captured one third of the smart thermostat market, while Nest owns about 60% market share.
Ecobee has been a great partner working with Amazon Alexa. In addition to release Alexa skills, its latest thermostat model Ecobee4 even has Alexa built-in, allowing users to directly talk to their thermostats and ask for pizza delivery.
The Series C funding will raise Ecobee’s capital up to US$146 million. The Toronto-based company said to use the funding on smart home device category expansion, including its upcoming Switch+, an internet-connected light controller with Alexa built-in.
“All of our products are built around helping customers save money and conserve energy,” said Stuart Lombard, the found and CEO of Ecobee, to CNBC. “But we also have a vision to change the smart home from a collection of hard-to-configure devices to something with a better outcome for consumers.”