The founder and CEO of a Newfoundland company specializing in smart thermostats to reduce energy consumption and fight against climate change says the time is right for people to invest in green technology.
Mysa Smart Thermostats is the brainchild of Josh Green, a Memorial University engineering graduate. A project that gestated through the Genesis Centre's incubator program, the company has grown in leaps and bounds over the last four years. The company now employs 70 people in St. John's, with 20 of those positions newly created in 2020.
Earlier this week, the company announced new investment funding totalling $6.2 million. At a time when uncertainty swirls around the fossil fuels sector, currently dealing with the dual threats of low oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic, Green believes interest in the green technology sector is growing.
"It's a real tipping point of where investors are putting their money," said Green. "I think that again is a testament to the funds we announced this week — about people seeing this is the future. I know we have a long way to go yet in terms of actually getting to scale and having as much of an impact on the economy as oil and gas does, but I think the writing is on the wall and investors are putting their money where they think the future is headed."
The $6.2 million comes from two sources. Existing investors, including the Venture NL private venture capital fund, contributed $3.2 million, with the remaining $3 million coming as a convertible note from the BDC Capital Bridge Financing Program, which supports Canadian startups impacted by COVID-19.
B2B sales
Mysa's smart thermostats offer application-based control of energy usage. The company's products have been on the market for a bit over two years, with most sales geared towards the business-to-consumer (B2C) market. However, Green noted there has been noticeable growth on the business-to-business (BSB) side of sales.
"We have seen a lot of progress — and this has been a big effort of several people at our company — to get better and try to increase the amount of sales through B2B, whether it be selling to contractors, selling it to wholesalers, physical retailers,” he said. “We're seeing a huge uptick on that side of the business in the last six months, and we expect to see that continue and hopefully continue to the point where we have almost 50-50 between B2B and B2C."
Like most businesses, Mysa's employees have generally worked remotely from home during the pandemic. This has not been a big issue according to Green, as the company has always strived to offer a flexible work environment attuned to employees' needs.
"People were already spending maybe an afternoon or morning working from home or a coffee shop, so it was quite normal for us to move in that direction — although to a much larger degree," he said, adding some employees have recently returned to the office.
As the company continues to grow, it's looked to address the tech industry's gender imbalance. According to 2017 data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, only 24 per cent of tech company employees in the United States were women.
Mysa recently created a spotlight series profiling women who work for the company. This series attracted a lot of attention online in recent weeks — Green said engagement through the website Linkedin reached 50,000. Its now promoting a mentorship program connecting women interested in speaking with Mysa employees. According to Green, the company has already noticed an uptick in the number of female candidates applying for jobs with the company.
Twitter: @CBNAndrew
