Green technology company Intellihot has just taken the latest steps to complete its goal of making the world a better place by creating solutions that reduce energy waste and greenhouse gas emissions in the built environment. After raising $50 million in growth financing led by investors Aegon Asset Management and the Avenue Sustainable Solutions Fund, the company has formally launched the company’s disruptive technology innovation team. It is looking to fill 50 new positions this year as it focuses on creating breakthrough technologies to disrupt the $81-billion global HVAC market and plans to expand internationally.
Sridhar Deivasigamani Intellihot
Intellihot founder/CEO Sridhar Deivasigamani said the company and its products—which include commercial water heaters—will continue to work to make it easier for hotels to have less of an effect on the environment. “When we think about hotels and the value proposition of a clean bed and a hot shower, we want to continue to deliver on that as hotels look to decarbonize and progress towards net zero,” he said. “The current technologies we have in place, especially on the electrification side, really are not suitable to take us there. So, we are building an electric roadmap that will help large-scale buildings like hotels, hospitals and nursing homes go to net zero and carbon neutral.”
He said that the new team will help to continue the company’s work. “The work we have been doing in CO2 reduction, substantial improvement in energy efficiency, as well as health and safety they are all coming together,” he said. “The company is looking to hit the next stride in electrification and also making the leap forward in health and safety.”
James Rich, senior portfolio manager, Aegon Asset Management, said his company invested in Intellihot because there is a lot of room for improvement in hot water technology. “Intellihot recognizes that, first, we’re using the same archaic hot water technology we used 150 years ago,” he said. “And second, we wait for HVAC systems to fail before we replace them—without considering the potential loss of revenue and customer goodwill associated with system downtime. Intellihot’s green technology solutions solve both of those problems, while simultaneously reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of large commercial facilities.”
Intellihot has built a new R&D facility to find solutions that reduce energy waste and greenhouse gas emissions in the built environment.
The new team will be led by Nikolay Popov, the Intellihot’s new director of innovation, and comprises subject matter experts in a variety of high-tech specialties including programming, analytics and robotics engineering. Before joining Intellihot, Popov founded CORTEQ Innovations and worked with industrial leaders including Marmon Holdings Inc., Invensys Controls and Elkay Manufacturing.
“Nik is a great example of the type of people who join Intellihot,” said Deivasigamani. “We draw people from various facets of the industry—from robotics, HVAC, power, automotive and autonomous machines. In order for us to get to a world that is sustainable, clean, efficient and safe, we can’t make minor, small modifications to existing technology, the whole thing has to be blown up and really redone from scratch.”
He continued, “The best way to redo that from scratch is to bring in a group of people who really understand basic physics and can think of different dimensions, and they all have to be united by one common purpose, which is they want to see a world that’s better and safer. This is really meaningful to their lives. We seem to attract employees who are very passionate, who think that their mission is to make the world a better place.”
Popov added, “Our work will drive technological innovation, solving the mismanaged systems of the built environment that we have relied upon for far too long. With cost-efficient and state-of-the art technology that was created by Intellihot’s industry-leading, innovative experts, we will move the world’s commercial buildings into a greener future.”
The company has opened a brand-new research and development center for the team and its work. “[We are not only] furthering our current product, but also developing and launching new products,” Popov said. “New technologies will be developed—centered really around electrification, decarbonization, and health and safety of the built environment. I think all those elements have to come together.”
The research will look at a variety of technologies to find those that have the least impact on the environment. “When people think about how to go to something that’s sustainable—meaning we can keep doing it forever without impacting our homeland—we have to look at sources of energy and technology that supports them,” said Deivasigamani.
While solar power has its benefits, it also has drawbacks and inefficiencies. “The conversion mechanism itself is very slow, and it’s not exactly available through the day,” he said. “It is seasonal. There is a lot of variation, which means you have to collect some of it slowly and put it in a battery or put it in some kind of storage, and then use it when we need it.”
He said they are looking for a combination of technologies. “It’s not just all electric—we recognize electricity is a great, clean way,” said Deivasigamani. “There are other things like hydrogen, energy recovery and energy storage that come into play. It’s not a simple solution. If it was simple, I think people would have done it. If it was simple and it was economically viable, we would have done it a while ago.”
