Smart thermostat maker Ecobee just wrapped up a $61 million Series C, bringing the Toronto-based company’s total funding to $146 million. This latest round features investments from Energy Impact Partners, Thomvest, Relay Ventures and, most notably, Amazon’s Alexa Fund, which has taken a particularly interest in the company’s products of late.
No surprise, really. Ecobee has been particularly bullish about embracing Amazon’s smart assistant. In fact, in May of last year, the company became one of the first Amazon product to build Alexa functionality directly into its own products.
The Ecobee thermostat 4 sports far-field technology that essentially lets it double as another Echo device, and the company has since added a smart light switch to the list, as well. Ecobee is really an ideal partner for Amazon, given the fact that its chief competitor, Nest, has been part of Google for some time.
Just last week, reports surfaced that Amazon planned to stop selling Nest products, as a feud between the two technology giants intensified.
Ecobee’s desire to install devices in every room of the home matches up perfectly with Amazon’s third-party Alexa play. And honestly, given the fact that Amazon recently purchased Ring, I wouldn’t be too surprised to see Ecobee become the next hardware maker to get rolled up under the Amazon umbrella — assuming its ready to sell, of course.
The 11-year-old company has been seeing some strong growth in recent years, and has captured around a third of the smart thermostat market by its own count. Along with leading the investment, Energy Impact Partners’ Lindsay Luger will also be joining Ecobee’s board.
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