measurable.energy plugs in its power-saving technology
Reading-headquartered tech scale-up measurable.energy secured £4 million Series A+ funding in October 2024 to globalise sales of its AI-powered smart sockets. CEO and Co-founder Dan Williams explains how the award-winning company aims to change the way the world consumes energy.
Leaving electrical devices switched on or in standby mode is an eco-sin most of us are probably guilty of committing. Wasting energy also burns a hole in the pocket of whoever pays the electricity bill.
One answer to the challenge of lowering energy use and carbon emissions from plugged-in devices is taking shape in Berkshire. Having completed engineering doctorates at the University of Reading, Dan and measurable.energy co-founder Josh Eadie decided the solution was to put AI into the humble plug socket.
measurable.energy’s revolutionary smart technology automatically detects what is plugged in and where power savings can be made. The company estimates that most commercial and office buildings could cut their electricity bills by at least 20%.
It’s not just a new way of measuring power use, Dan emphasises, it tackles the problem head on by making data-driven decisions to automatically turn off plugged in devices when not in use and on again when they are. The company also aims to shift behaviours in how we manage our energy use. “We use the analogy of ‘you wouldn’t ignore a dripping tap’ to get across the collective impact of daily energy waste and to take control of it like you would waste water,” says Dan.
Notable early beneficiaries of the technology include construction company Kier, which cut energy usage by half. The University of Reading reduced its energy usage by 872kWh in two months, while modular building manufacturer Wernick Group reduced carbon emissions by 23% in four months.
This high-tech, but ultimately simple answer to a growing global problem has earned the company recognition. measurable.energy won this year’s Sustainable Tech Company of the Year at The Business Magazine’s Thames Valley Technology & Innovation Awards, having been a finalist in the category for the previous two years. It was Tech SME of the Year in 2023.
Switched on to growth potential
The technology combines Dan’s doctorate research at Microsoft assessing the environmental impact of its technology with Chief Technology Officer Josh’s work in robotics and machine learning. The impetus was Dan’s desire to change things for the better.
“We asked each other: ‘Why isn’t it simpler to measure and control equipment?’. The physical hardware to measure power has been around for a long time, so why not put the technology inside a plug socket?” says Dan.
Within a week of deciding to find the solution, Josh had designed and 3D-printed their first-ever socket with a microchip he created. “It wasn’t very good, but it proved the point that it could be done,” Dan observes.
The pair describe it like putting a human brain into a simple power socket. For example, it has the intelligence to know it’s not a good idea to switch off a freezer to save energy.
The database and algorithms generated from the technology makes the product unique, according to Dan. The sockets connect to an online dashboard so users can visualise, understand and control their power usage at device level, although the system automatically controls itself too.
Financing global expansion
Convinced that their technology could answer business needs, the duo sought funding to get it off the ground.
A £100,000 Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership grant helped kick-start the business. Reading Borough Council also provided financial support in the early days. “The funding enabled us to develop the prototype,” says Dan.
The business interruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic proved to be something of a sort of blessing in disguise. “It was a horrible period for us, but we were able to spend a lot of time refining our hardware and machine learning. So, on balance, it was good in hindsight,” he says.
It was a tough task obtaining further financing for a product that didn’t yet exist commercially. “We had to prove that the technology works, which is where the Reading LEP grant really helped,” says Dan.
Next, measurable.energy landed £1.5 million of seed funding from Bonheur, a renewable energy specialist based in Norway.
The cash injection enabled the company to begin mass manufacturing. This is done at a factory in Scotland and it hopes to retain UK manufacturing if it can. For Dan, it was at this stage that measurable.energy felt like a ‘real’ company.
Securing Series A funding was the next financial step. Like many start-ups this involved a seemingly endless round of meetings – 120 in all, Dan recalls. The result was £4.5 million led by the venture capital group Clean Growth Fund in 2023.
This was followed in October 2024 with a further £4 million in Series A+ funding co-led by new investor Vertex, another global venture capital company based in Singapore.
“We now have funding from outside the UK with global opportunities opening up,” he said. “We continue to sell well in the UK, with 17,000 units sold since our commercial launch in 2023. We are prototyping power sockets for the European, North American and South East Asian markets,”
Market reach
Along the way, the company has been helped by some high-profile coverage. It won a competition to be one of five companies invited to present to delegates at the United Nations’ COP 26 Climate Change Conference in 2021. “An awesome experience,” Dan recalls.
Appearing on a BBC News programme about the use of its product on the planet-orbiting International Space Station also gained it publicity, with the clip viewed regularly online.
The company is currently targeting the commercial market and the construction sector. Customers include offices, retailers and universities. “We plan to go into the residential sector and are building up a waiting list of potential customers. Our staff are conducting tests in their homes at the moment,” says Dan.
He makes a point about differentiating its smart socket from competitors who will inevitably emerge. “We have been collecting data since 2020, so we have the largest data set on earth about measuring power in a plug socket.”
Future direction
measurable.energy’s growing R&D team in Reading is busy generating new ideas and patenting them. They’re confidential but hint at even bigger things to come. The team has quickly grown to 27 and Dan anticipates significant expansion in the coming years.
Meanwhile, Dan and Josh maintain links with their alma mater, giving occasional lectures that showcase how entrepreneurial talent can flourish.
While it is still early days, Dan also talks of long-term plans to grow the company. “So far, it has been an interesting journey for both of us – from academia to consultancy to running a business. We’re excited to continue to build a future where every power socket in the world is a measurable. energy socket,” he says.
