Friday, September 26, 2008

Rockport Capital heats up home energy efficiency with $6M fund

By Mass High Tech Staff

Boston-based Rockport Capital Partners has teamed with California’s Shasta Ventures to provide the first round of funding for home energy efficiency startup Sustainable Spaces Inc., based in San Francisco.

The tandem provided Sustainable Spaces with $6 million in Series A funding, aimed at helping the company “build its infrastructure to meet the exploding demand for its services,” according to a company statement.

Founded in 2004, Sustainable Spaces uses what executives call “building science” to bring homes up to today’s standards of energy efficiency, health and comfort. The company’s services include home energy audits and retrofit projects.

Since 2004, the company has performed more than 400 home retrofits in the San Francisco Bay Area, lowering homeowners’ energy usage and expenses by an average of 40 percent, while improving indoor air quality and thermal comfort, according to a company statement.

With offices in Boston and California, Rockport Capital has been active on the clean energy investment front. Locally, it has invested in industrial electron beam technology maker Advanced Electron Beams Inc. in Wilmington; pollutant control technology developer Powerspan Corp. in Portsmouth, N.H.; solar panel maker Evergreen Solar Inc. in Marlborough; and micro fuel cell developer Lilliputian Systems Inc. in Wilmington.