New venture launches
Connecticut Innovations has put its money behind a new venture, Sustainable Real Estate Solutions in Monroe.
Connecticut Innovations, the state”™s quasi-public authority responsible for technology investing and development, invested a half-million dollars in the Sustainable Real Estate Solutions.
The investment was made as part of its Connecticut Clean Tech Fund, the majority of an $800,000 investment round also involving LaunchCapital L.L.C., a venture capital fund with offices in New Haven, and individual investors. Sustainable Real Estate Solutions is the third company to receive assistance through the fund.
Brian McCarter, Sustainable Real Estate Solutions”™ founder and CEO, said the investment will help to bolster the company for a national launch of its software product.
“SRS is delighted to be partnering with CI to launch its innovative solutions on a national and, shortly, international level,” said McCarter.
SRS is the producer of Sustainable Real Estate Manager, a system that provides sets of energy performance data for the commercial real estate industry. The software suite is a software-as-a-service platform.
McCarter said sustainability is rapidly shifting from a peripheral, “feel good” issue, to a central agenda item for businesses, one requiring focused action.
“Market forces, such as rising energy costs, combined with energy disclosure and green building regulatory requirements, are creating strong demand in the commercial real estate market for solutions that will improve sustainability,” said McCarter. “That demand, applied to a commercial real estate market consisting of more than 9 billion square feet, excluding government-owned buildings, yields an enormous potential market for SRS”™s tools.”
According to McCarter the platform combines information from several existing and emerging industry benchmarks including Energy Star and LEED.?Peter Longo, president and executive director of CI, said McCarter is a “repeat entrepreneur,” who was part of the founding management team at Environmental Data Resources, a former CI portfolio company.
“With Brian at the helm and a comprehensive solution in hand, SRS should be well positioned to penetrate this exploding market,” said Longo.
Governor M. Jodi Rell said with buildings accounting for 38 percent of the nation”™s greenhouse gas emissions and 39 percent of national energy use; it is imperative to develop tools, such as those being introduced at SRS.