Wattcost moves into Sydney Startup Hub

Energy and intelligent home start-up Wattcost has become one of the first companies to settle into the Sydney Startup Hub, opened yesterday by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Deputy Premier John Barilaro.

Spread over 11 floors above Sydney’s Wynyard Station, the new facility attracted a cash injection of $35 million from Jobs for NSW last year. Anticipated to create thousands of job opportunities across metro and regional NSW, it will also be one of only eight locations worldwide to host Microsoft’s ScaleUp program for start-ups.

Barilaro said it would not have been possible to attract a program of Microsoft’s calibre without the NSW Government’s investment in the Sydney Startup Hub. “There is enormous competition to secure Microsoft ScaleUp for different countries,” he said, “so it’s an incredible result to see Sydney chosen as the newest location to host this sought-after and highly acclaimed program.”

“Microsoft launched the ScaleUp Program in 2012,” said Microsoft Australia Managing Director Steven Worrall. “Since then, close to 650 start-ups have raised around US$3 billion in funding after graduating from programs run in Bangalore, Shanghai, Beijing, London, Berlin, Seattle and Tel Aviv.”

On top of Microsoft, the Sydney Startup Hub has secured a list of tenants including Stone & Chalk, Fishburners, Tank Stream Labs (TSL), The Studio, Westpac’s FEULD, H2 Ventures, Slingshot, Transport for NSW’s Future Transport Digital Accelerator, the Department of Finance and Services, and an innovation team from Caltex’s C-Lab. Wattcost recently relocated to TSL from Fishburners’ old address in Ultimo and will be one of the first to occupy TSL’s hardware prototyping and testing lab at the hub.

Wattcost claims that its award-winning intelligent home solution is poised to transform how people think about, buy and consume energy in the future. Launching in May this year, the solution collects and crunches data on energy usage, identifying specific home appliances while recommending efficiency measures, suggesting genuine carbon offset options and increasing the ROI of residential PV solar and storage systems.

“At the core of what we’ve built is a system that ‘humanises’ energy data to help households continuously save money, improve occupant safety and take control of their carbon footprint,” said Wattcost co-founder and CEO David Soutar.

“It’s a concept we have termed the ‘intelligent home’, and in the next few years we will see the average household take control of their energy data and costs leading to vastly more efficient and environmentally friendly choices.”

The system comprises a self-powered wireless ‘beacon’ designed to monitor entire home energy use non-intrusively from the electricity meter. Real-time data is fed into the Wattcost cloud platform with an app, giving consumers clear visibility and control over their energy costs.

Wattcost estimates that the average household could cut its annual CO₂ emissions by almost a tonne annually by utilising the intelligent beacon, AI system and app. It hopes to sign up 500,000 households in the next five years.

“Wattcost understands the crucial role of government in supporting early-stage technology companies in Australia that can make a difference,” Soutar said. “We look forward to seeing the benefits of further state and federal government contributions as the country’s innovation sector embarks on a new phase of development and growth.”

Image credit: ©Sergey Nivens/Dollar Photo Club