Former chief executives of Bord Gáis and energy giant SSE have both invested in Climote, a smart home technology company headquartered in Dundalk. John Mullins, head of Bord Gais from 2007 until 2012 and Ian Marchant, chief executive of SSE from 2002 until 2013, have also both joined the company's advisory board.

Climote makes smart thermostats which allows users control their home heating and house temperature using their phones from anywhere in the world. It recently announced a contract with ScottishPower to offer its technology to the company's 5.6 million customers in Britain. It also has partnerships with Electric Ireland (the retail arm of the ESB) and Power NI.

The company was founded in 2011 by Derek Roddy and Eamon Conway and evolved out of a previous venture called Smarthomes. Mr Conway, managing director of Climote, said his company was currently working on a new fundraising.

‘Investment’

“The current investment round will allow Climote to continue our expansion in Ireland and the

United Kingdom

. In addition the Climote engineering and design team continue to work on additional and exciting new products, all related to connected home technology” Mr Conway, managing director of Climote said.

He declined to say what amount his company hoped to raise. The majority of shares in Climote are held by Mr Conway and Mr Roddy. In addition to its two new investors it also has a number of Swiss based angel backers. Mr Mullins currently is chief executive of Amarenco Solar, which has a portfolio of solar energy plants in France as well as being managing partner in Augmentis Ireland, which invests in various aspects of the energy business.

‘Market share’

“I look forward to working on growing Climote’s market share, entering new markets and rolling out new and exciting products across different markets,” Mr Mullins said.

“The technology behind Climote, which allows users to control their home heating from anywhere, via one touch programming is beautifully simple and extremely reliable.”