To promote energy efficiency, Ukrainian startup Ecoisme has designed household sensors which look like wireless Internet routers.
These devices track energy usage by domestic appliances, such as refrigerators, or by lights in the house. Data are sent to users’ smartphones along with energy-saving tips.
Ecoisme recently collected more than $67,000 from around 600 backers worldwide through the global Indiegogo crowdfunding platform. Only 47 contributions totaling $3,355 came from Ukraine, mostly from personal contacts. Before the campaign kicked off, Bas Godska, a Dutch angel investor, contributed an unspecified but substantial amount.
In line with the memorandum between Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund, the National Commission for State Energy and Public Utilities will increase the average price of electricity for Ukrainian consumers by March 2017 to cost recovery levels. The availability of coal from Donbas is a major concern for the electricity market.
Buying the tech company’s product under Ukraine’s old system of energy tariffs might not be a sensible purchase, according to CEO Ivan Pasichnyk.
Consumer energy prices until recently were extremely low compared to the U.S. or European Union, thanks to government subsidies, meaning savings would be slight, Pasichnyk estimates. New, higher energy tariffs may cause both Ecoisme and ordinary citizens to value energy conservation.
Ukraine’s energy market is highly monopolized and consumers cannot change their provider easily. That eliminates competition. Moreover, monopoly utility providers don’t work with consumers to help them lower their bills, as many regulated ones do in Western countries.
Ecoisme’s eight-member team plans to release their product in October and is currently deciding which production facility to use. Pasichnyk says there are several high-quality and relatively cheap options in Ukraine and there is no need to spend $5,000 on traveling to China to arrange production there.
State-owned Naftogaz’s deficit last year was driven by importing gas at international market prices while the population paid in local currency and oligarch-controlled intermediaries were accused of witholding payments.
Pasichnyk estimates Ecoisme’s solution could save up to $40 monthly in a regular two- or three-room apartment in Poland, for example.
The four co-founders of Ecoisme lived in Poland last year thanks to the support of Deutsche Telekom’s T-Venture fund that invested around $100,000 in the company. But now the team has relocated to Ukraine.
Ecois.me’s sensor tracks energy usage by domestic appliances.
For the campaign, the team spent around $4,000 on designing the sensor, $5,000 more was spent on the promotional video for the campaign and around $8,000 on public relations activities and marketing.
Also 5 percent of the money raised will go to Indiegogo for hosting the crowdfunding campaign and an additional 4 percent will be taken by the payment processor.
Kyiv Post staff writer Bozhena Sheremeta can be reached at [email protected]. The Kyiv Post’s IT coverage is sponsored by AVentures Capital, Ciklum, FISON and SoftServe.
