Among the most popular smart home devices are those like Nest that can regulate temperatures automatically and remotely. This is great if your home’s temperature is controlled from a central source, but what if you don’t? What if your air conditioner comes from a remote controlled window, wall, or portable unit? Then, a product like Nest is no good for you.
That’s where tado comes in. Tado fills a gap in the market where Nest and other whole home thermostat solutions fall short. The tado Smart Thermostat and Smart AC Control products makes these heating and AC systems smarter, turning any smartphone into a geo-aware remote control. Tado ingeniously detects a user’s proximity to their residence and adjusts the temperature accordingly – so it’s comfortable when you get there, but conserves energy by 30-40 percent when you’re away. It also integrates with local weather forecasts and can adapt based on those forecasts to add to the savings and convenience. Users can also adjust the temperature using their phone from any location inside or outside the home.
Aside from helping the millions of people who don’t have central air to still have smarter homes, tado is also really good at raising money. It just announced that it has closed a $23 million round of funding, bringing the company’s total to $57 million in funding overall. The round was led by international investor INVEN CAPITAL, a venture capital arm of the ČEZ GROUP, a multinational energy conglomerate.
“It’s expected that a whopping 32 million smart thermostats will have been installed worldwide by 2020, and there’s no reason why those without central heating or AC should be left out in the cold,”said Christian Deilmann, Co-Founder and CEO of tado in a statement. “The fact is, millions of window, portable, and wall units use infrared remote controls that just don’t work with Nest and others like it.”
Tado operates in 12 European countries, in the U.S. and in Singapore and is carried by a number of retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy and Home Depot. The recent round of funding will be used to expand their US market.
