Entelligo in the PCMag Start-Up Spotlight
While countries move more speedily toward environmentally friendly energy solutions, the renewables and solar power industries are growing into a forcefulness in the world economy. The renewables marketplace is a complicated and evolving one, though. It starts with the corporations and research firms devising cheaper and more efficient solutions. Those innovations make their way to the transitioning energy companies and newer manufacturers mass-producing solar panels, heating and cooling systems, and solar batteries. Finally, the solar power providers and salespeople effectually the globe buy those assets and sell the installations to households and businesses.
Entelligo, the company featured in this edition of PCMag'southward Start-Upwardly Spotlight, is a B2B Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company aiming to help those salespeople sell more solar installations to more people more efficiently with a convenient iPad and Android app. The Amsterdam-based start-up founded by three Italian entrepreneurs—CEO Stefano Peruzzi, COO Federico Duregon, and CTO Giorgio Ceolin—offers the renewable energy sales forcefulness a freemium app to calculate a household's energy needs and the price of a solar installation, generate interactive graphs and visuals to explain how the renewable solution works, and populate a sales proposal to sign on the spot.
The company is also gearing up to launch a B2B network to accompany the app and necktie the manufacturers, solar providers, and salespeople together into a more organized business organization community. Duregon and Peruzzi spoke to some of the larger world market trends Entelligo believes make at present the right time for the service its platforms provide.
"We come from northern Italy where, not far away, Venice is slowly sinking into the sea as sea levels rise," said Duregon. "We're headquartered in Amsterdam, which has the aforementioned trouble. We've talked to companies and researchers all over the globe—from Germany to the United states of america—and everyone is pushing for renewables."
"It's already making an impact," added Peruzzi. "China is investing more than than Europe and the U.S. together. Y'all encounter car companies like Tesla changing the market. Renewable free energy is strategic, it's resilient, and we fit into this because our tool makes it easier for the industry to tackle a market of millions of households, and we show households the savings and benefits on pinnacle of the environmental bear upon. It's not merely a change in the market or a change in engineering merely a change of heed."
Company Dossier Proper name:
Entelligo
Founded: 2014
Founders: Stefano Peruzzi, Federico Duregon, Georgio Ceolin
HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands
What They Do: Mobile sales app and B2B network
What That Means: Connecting and simplifying the renewable energy supply chain
Business Model:
B2B freemium SaaS
Current Status: Android, iPad apps available; Network in beta
Electric current Funding: $94.15K in pre-seed funding
Expected Network Launch: Q2 2022
Expected Self-Assessment App Launch: Q3 2022
The Founders' Story
Peruzzi and Duregon are longtime friends from Padua, Italian republic who founded Entelligo in tardily 2022, with co-founder CTO Giorgio Ceolin joining the company in January 2022. Peruzzi'south groundwork is in mobile app development and—combined with Duregon'south experience every bit a sales manager in renewable energies—they saw a risk to capitalize on the Italian authorities's conclusion in early 2022 to halt subsidies on photovoltaic (PV) ability generation.
"Federico came to my business firm one night and told me he saw a business opportunity," said Peruzzi. "He was working equally a sales manager for a visitor that installed large megawatt solar installations. The market at that point was shifting, with Italia removing the incentives, but that market collapse created an opportunity for residential sales. Nosotros devised a tool for iPad, and now Android, that lets renewable energy salespeople walk up to a household, ask the resident a few questions, and calculate on-the-spot simulations of solar radiations, heat distribution, and fiscal analysis of what a solar installation would cost a resident compared to their current free energy solution."
Solar energy made up seven.53 pct of Italy'southward power output in 2022, the highest percentage of solar output for any state in the globe. Italy has no natural oil deposits and has invested in renewables largely to attain more than energy independence. Along with this rapid technological advancement in renewables has come a steep drop in price.
"A few years ago, you had to pay around €30,000 for a domicile solar installation, and now information technology'due south less than €10,000 for an installation including a battery," said Duregon. "Panels can now final 25-30 years. Technology changes everything, and now information technology'southward really an reward to go with renewables."
After developing the prototype awarding, Entelligo began testing the tool through a partnership with the Italian co-operative of Federal republic of germany-based multinational solar free energy provider Adler Solar, before applying and gaining credence to the Rockstart Accelerator in Amsterdam. Rockstart gave Entelligo a little under $100,000 in pre-seed funding, helped the kickoff-upward found its LLC as Entelligo BV, and set the company up in its Amsterdam headquarters in early 2022.
In the past twelvemonth, the start-up has worked to refine the Entelligo iPad app, launched an Android app, and began developing the business-to-business organization (B2B) networking component of the platform. Entelligo has also spent the year networking with renewable energy companies and investors at events worldwide, including the 2022 Cleantech Forum in San Francisco and the Ecosummit in Berlin. Every bit the founders met more and more companies in the manufacture, they started thinking about wider business possibilities and a way to facilitate a stronger customs attribute inside the smart energy industry.
"Beyond our core sales tool, we started thinking almost a bigger flick around developing a cloud network that connects all the actors in the energy field," said Peruzzi. "We take manufacturers, installation companies, and salespeople connecting, and then allow'southward say a salesperson can transfer a commercial proposal in existent fourth dimension to the installation companies and, at the same time, get product catalogs from the manufacturers. The sales tool is integrated with the support network as well, so all the players in the field tin can get the anonymized analytics and Big Data the salespeople are collecting about customers, households, and regions. The network should act as a kind of LinkedIn, just more vertical-focused on the smart free energy field."
Inside the Platform
Entelligo plans to offer three primary products: Entelligo Home, a free mobile app for households to run a "self-energy inspect;" the core Entelligo Pro freemium Android and iPad app for salespeople (already released); and the coming Entelligo Enterprise freemium web service for deject-based industry networking, product management, and information analysis.
Peruzzi described the Entelligo Pro app as a serial of views where salespeople can quickly input energy consumption data on a household's current energy costs and the solar energy calculations of its geolocation. The app turns the information into interactive charts and graphs, with articulate numbers and slider bars for the salesperson to adjust estimates, and demonstrate how the energy installation would work and what information technology would cost the consumer. The app is designed to complete the entire pitch in virtually 10 minutes.
As the salesperson takes the client through their customized pitch within the app, Entelligo generates a sales contract for the client to sign immediately should they choose to purchase. The app's financial department prompts the salesperson to ask how much a customer would like to pay upfront or whether they're interested in a loan with a particular interest rate. This information populates an itemized commercial proposal with hardware and specs, pricing, and value-added tax (VAT) information—set up to sign and forward on to the manufacturer rather than leaving the customer and coming back the next day with a contract.
"For the salespeople, the app has to be fast and give you numbers," said Peruzzi. "The interface gives you fields to insert gas consumption, electricity consumption, etc., and immediately spits out a diagram based on the iPad'south geolocation of the solar radiation and consumption rates in the area. The slider bar so helps you residual between the number of panels you want to install, the energy output, and what you'll be spending."
Entelligo is building the coming redesigned app interface to be even more user-friendly, calculation a wizard that takes salespeople through a few questions and answers for the client. When the magician completes, the app generates a screen showing the full amount of money, energy, and CO 2 the household can salve by installing solar panels and a battery.
The redesigned app also includes a second type of interface enabling drag-and-drib design. Peruzzi explained how the salesperson can drag and drop solar panels and batteries to organize and melody the installation a customer wants, and "residue the pie charts" to show the optimal combination of toll and power in a relatable visual context.
This interactive simulation tooling is also the footing for the Entelligo Home mobile app for Android and iOS. The app gives the full general public a free, accessible way to understand what renewable energy technology consists of and how much a household tin relieve. The app too includes a button to contact a local solar provider for an installation at any time. Entelligo Domicile is planned for release in the App Store and Google Play in Spring 2022.
"On one side, we enable the sellers to be more clear and, on the other side, we use the interface and graphics to help the household empathize how this technology works and why it's affordable," said Peruzzi. "The engineering science is based on our experience in the field and those of our partners. You run the simulation and clearly empathize what you can salve."
The Entelligo Network is currently in beta, with a small puddle of partner companies uploading their smart free energy product catalogs as they ready the major update to the Android and iPad apps to integrate with the spider web service. Peruzzi explained some apply cases where manufacturers could end upwardly partnering with installation companies or sellers in a particular region. The network and Entelligo Enterprise will launch for wide sales in Q2 2022.
"Maybe a manufacturer wants to enter a particular region of, let'south say, French republic, Germany, or Italy," said Peruzzi. "They're looking for installation companies on the ground to get their solar panels and energy storage cells installed—the network is a fashion to find that company. Possibly an contained seller wants to piece of work under the banner of a larger energy company that dominates the market in a region. They could connect through the network and send business proposals to the manufacturer through the Entelligo Pro app."
Business Plan Breakdown
The updated Entelligo Pro app is already alive in Italian republic. Information technology is ready to launch wide in Q2 2022, along with the Entelligo Enterprise network, beginning in cardinal and southern Europe (with plans to expand to China and the U.S. within the year). Entelligo currently employs an intern in Taiwan who researches the East Asian renewable marketplace. The start-up is as well negotiating distributor agreements and plans to brainstorm selling Entelligo Pro subscriptions in France and United mexican states in Q2, planning to aggrandize into Due south Africa this summer.
"In that location are different global markets with different needs—some need solar, batteries, and heat; some need air-conditioning—simply our business model works because we're partnering with installers and providers on the ground in these countries, and providing a configurable information entry and presentation app that tin can be adapted state by country as a sales tool," said Peruzzi.
According to the company'due south business organisation plan, in Italy solitary Entelligo projects to work with 120,000 companies; 300,000 sales reps; and ultimately install renewables in 24 million households, projecting the "equivalent of €25 one thousand thousand [$27.4 million] in revenue for every ane percent of conversion rate." The programme projects €fifty one thousand thousand over 55 1000000 households equally office of Entelligo's plan to move into Republic of austria, Germany, and Benelux (Belguim, Luxembourg, and The netherlands).
As for the go-to-market strategy, Peruzzi and Duregon laid out three pillars, with the core business organization model based in app subscriptions. Entelligo Pro is priced at €399 ($437) for a yearly subscription, and an Entelligo Enterprise spider web app subscription costs €599 ($656).
For the complimentary Entelligo Dwelling house app, the starting time-upwards plans to ultimately integrate inbound marketing, offering renewable free energy providers customer lists and anonymized consumption and demographics data from the self-assessments. The B2B network volition be accessible from both the iPad app and the enterprise web application—but just in the web app tin can companies manage product catalogs, coordinate with sellers, and access analytics data.
The final pillar is based on Entelligo'due south partnerships with manufacturers in different countries to ultimately offer sales training and road shows dedicated to renewable energy engineering science. Entelligo is currently seeking a seed funding round of approximately €300,000 ($328,360) to invest in its software development staff and to hire sales managers in more of the countries in which it hopes to aggrandize.
The Venture Capital Advice
In the last section of each installment in PCMag'south First-Up Spotlight series, nosotros give venture capital (VC) firms a hazard to research each outset-up and weigh in on their business organization plan and market viability. Entelligo enters a crowded marketplace of companies either selling solar hardware, renewable energy sales tools, or B2B and marketing networks for the industry. The company detailed a list of competitors including EasySolar, OnGrid Solar, and PVsyst.
The key to Entelligo'southward business organization plan, though, is the company'southward growing number of manufacturing partnerships in multiple countries. All three of its offerings also factor into the same overall growth strategy; they're non siloed products.
Lauren Loktev, Venture Partner at Collaborative Fundsaid Entelligo is focused on a real pain point in the solar and renewable energy industry, just believes the start-up needs to focus its resources.
"Many installers and solar entrepreneurs lack the back-end capability to process new clients quickly, resulting in a lot of transmission site assessment and contracting," said Loktev. "Entelligo could aid small businesses compete against larger integrated players, many of which are investing significant fourth dimension and money in their own proprietary backend technologies.
"My main point of feedback for Entelligo at this early on stage would be to focus. Creating great ecology assessment and siting software requires very different development and skills than creating a social network, a consumer-facing tool, or fiscal planning tools. Focusing on their greatest force and point of differentiation, likely the siting and environmental tool, makes their story clearer to their customers and allows for the most efficient use of the capital they raise."
Tomasz Tunguz, Partner at Redpoint Venturesechoed that Entelligo is well-positioned to capitalize on a booming renewables market that shows no signs of slowing down. Though every bit the start-up seeks significant seed investment, Tunguz said the fob volition exist to prove Entelligo's value proposition is worth the coin.
"Entelligo has an opportunity to develop a sales productivity solution for the booming solar manufacture in the U.S., which employs more 200,000 people and installed $fifteen billion [worth] of panels in 2022, according to the SEIA," said Tunguz. "The growth of the manufacture is a tailwind for the business organization. But Entelligo is probable to confront questions from the managers of solar sales teams around the return on investment for the cost of the software. Does the software provide an increase in customer conversions and ultimate customer spend enough to justify the price?"
Know a cool start-up we should spotlight adjacent? Are you lot a VC firm interested in weighing in on featured start-ups? Electronic mail your suggestions to robert_marvin@pcmag.com.
This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.
Well-nigh Rob Marvin
Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/feature/9995/entelligo-in-the-pcmag-start-up-spotlight
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