Consolidation Represents a Maturing but Competitive Market for HEM Platforms

Home energy management (HEM) and customer solutions provider Tendril continues to set a quick pace for growth with its recent purchase of EnergySavvy, a provider of customer engagement solutions. The move by Tendril, based in Boulder, Colorado, is part of its long-term strategy to offer its utility customers a suite of tools that include personalization, HEM, advanced analytics, behavioral engagement, and program workflow. This acquisition “brings together those companies that not only extend the technical capabilities of our platform, but also share our commitment to innovation, and allow us to provide utility chief customer officers the industry’s most powerful single-solution suite,” said Tendril CEO Adrian Tuck.

Seattle-based EnergySavvy adds a set of personalization products that more than 30 utilities have already adopted to Tendril’s offerings. EnergySavvy’s cloud-based software solutions are credited with delivering a range of benefits to utilities, including lower call volumes plus increases in arrears collection, program enrollment, email open rates, and customer trust scores.

The move to acquire EnergySavvy follows a similar acquisition by Tendril in January 2019 of EEme, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based startup that focuses on load disaggregation in homes. EEme’s solution uses smart meter (also called advanced metering infrastructure) data to provide appliance-level disaggregation coupled with personalized recommendations for reducing consumption.

The fuel in the tank for these acquisitions by Tendril comes from Rubicon Technology Partners, a private equity firm that made a majority investment in the company in December 2018. Besides Rubicon, Morgan Stanley Alternative Investments and ZOMA Capital joined with Rubicon as minority investors.

Tendril Has Been Busy, but so Have Others

Silicon Valley startup, bidgely, offers load disaggregation technology and signed a partnership deal with EnergyHub in January 2019. The two companies have agreed to deliver a solution that integrates Bidgely’s Artificial Intelligence HEM platform and Insights Engine platform with EnergyHub’s Mercury Distributed Energy Resource Management System, connected device ecosystem, and customer life cycle tools.

Similarly, Oracle beefed-up its utility customer offerings announcing details of its product enhancements in April 2019. The new features are for Oracle’s Customer to Meter and Customer Cloud Service utility clients. The features include user experience enhancements, operational device management, advanced analytics, and digital self-service.

The HEM Market Delivers

Viewed collectively, these moves by Tendril, bidgely, and Oracle represent a much-needed maturation in the HEM space. The market is growing so consolidation is to be expected. This is a good sign of stability after a number of years where the HEM market was long on promises but searching for ways to deliver significant value to utilities and their residential customers. For more on the HEM market and the leading firms, see the Guidehouse Insights Leaderboard: Home Energy Management report.