Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) has invested £500,000 in energy company Labrador, bringing total capital raised in excess of £2m.
Labrador, which has developed a smart device that automatically switches customers’ suppliers based on their individual energy usage, will use the money to fund its market launch.
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The device, called the Retriever, uses smart technology to analyse customer data and automatically switch customers to the cheapest energy option.
Labrador CEO Jane Lucy spoke to Power-Technology.com in January about the device and said: “Essentially, it is a gateway that pairs with smart meters—the household has a ZigBee home area network set up at installation which we use to pair to the meters and then we use the home broadband to send the data to our cloud.
“The technology is unique in that it’s the only way to get granular data from smart meters in real-time.”
According to Labrador, the device offers a solution for the UK’s ‘broken energy market’ and an opportunity to unlock potential consumer savings of around £5bn.
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By GlobalDataManuel Lopo de Carvalho, head of DMGT’s ventures division, said: “We are delighted to be supporting Labrador in its innovative disruption of the UK energy market.
“We believe the company’s focus on driving down costs for hard-working British households will be appreciated by our huge consumer audience in the UK and now those readers will be amongst the first to benefit from Labrador’s offering”
The latest round of investment will be used for advertising, marketing and working capital to support the company’s launch. The money has come from a combination of high net worth investors, family offices and venture investors.
