En-trak, a Hong Kong-based energy management IoT company, recently announced a pre-Series A undisclosed investment from Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund and CLP Innovation Ventures, according to our parent 36Kr (link in Chinese) on Wednesday.
The company was also a recipient of the 2017 Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund’s Jumpstarter Competition, a startup pitching competition. The Fund is a not-for-profit initiative by Alibaba Group that aims to help Hong Kong and Taiwan-based entrepreneurs. CLP Innovation Ventures is a venture capital firm owned by Hong Kong utility giant CLP Holdings.
En-trak said that they will be using the money for expansion of its operations and sales in the region, according to a company spokesperson. It won US$1 million in investment from the Jumpstarter competition in November last year and currently has offices in Hong Kong and Singapore.
The company has its roots as a solar photovoltaic integrator in 2011 and moved into energy use management in 2013, according to its website. Its energy management system, the so-called Smart Building OS, allows for tracking of electrical, water, gas among other energy uses using IoT devices. The devices are connected onto a platform for building operators to monitor and reduce their energy costs. The company also claims of more than 20 per cent reduction in energy use in some cases.
The firm counts Fuji Xerox and Singapore’s government agency National Environmental Agency as some of its customers.
According to a report last year by consultancy Bain and Company, global spending on IoT in the utilities sector is expected to grow to US$292 billion by the year 2020, a CAGR of 40% growth from 2015 to 2020. The global IoT market is also touted to jump almost three times to US$457 billion from last year to 2020, according to a separate report by management consultancy Growth Enabler.