North East energy efficiency tech startup secures £300k investment for expansion

A North East tech startup has announced that it has secured an investment of more than £300k to help support its growth.

Equiwatt, based in Gateshead, secured the funding through the North East Venture Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Mercia, and angel investor Owen McFarlane.

The funding will be used to help scale up its expansion, enabling users to turn off appliances simultaneously as a community, and improving energy efficiency.

Williams Ali Corporate Finance supported Equiwatt in securing the investment, which will allow the company to run trials in the Gateshead area and create four new jobs.

Johnson Fernandes, founder of Equiwatt, commented: “I have a big passion for renewable and clean energy, and having grown up experiencing regular blackouts through the collective peak time usage of energy, I wanted to do something about it.

“I wanted to create a cleaner way of using energy for everyone, which is also more affordable, and build a community to be able to achieve that.

“Through using the Equiwatt app, which builds further on the many smart devices so many people are using to help them be more energy efficient, our users can achieve big savings through switching off devices collectively at peak times, and also secure rewards and incentives for doing so.

“The key is in the community, and together we can make a huge difference. It comes down to us all making small changes to make a big impact collectively.

“Building this community further is the next step for the business and our ability to scale up, and this investment will support us in being able to achieve that.

“Our technology is proven and the more we can grow our community, the more we can collectively be cleaner and more efficient in our energy usage.”