Lowercarbon Capital and Gradient Ventures Invest $9M in Quilt for Advanced Residential Heat Pump System
Quilt’s AI-guided Room-by-Room Ductless System Will Take Aim at Lowering Home CO2 Emissions – Currently 20 Percent of US Totals
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Quilt, creators of the most advanced ductless heat pump system ever designed for residential use, has closed a $9M seed funding round led by Lowercarbon Capital and Gradient Ventures. The company’s mission to reduce home-based fossil fuel dependency has attracted additional support from Incite Ventures, MCJ Collective, Garage Capital, Climate Capital, and Spacecadet.
Quilt has developed a highly efficient electric heat pump system that is controlled through a first-of-its-kind integrated software platform. Quilt’s design enables room-by-room control, creating precise climate zones throughout the home while eliminating the need for traditional furnaces and ductwork. This advanced system is housed within a sleek form factor designed by Mike&Maaike, the award-winning industrial design studio that is equally renowned for Google products as they are for modern furniture designs.
The platform’s built-in AI recognizes heating and cooling patterns throughout the home and automatically maximizes efficiency, increasing cost-savings over time; further incentivizing homeowners to switch to heat pumps and join the fight against climate change.
“Heat pumps are now widely recognized as the solution to decarbonizing home heating,” said Quilt co-founder and CEO Paul Lambert. “However, most heat pump systems today are more difficult to use than their more mature fossil incumbents. We’re developing heat pumps that are better than any HVAC system of any kind. Quilt will be the smartest way to add heating or cooling to your home, full stop.”
Lambert served as Director at Google’s Area 120, where he led the division’s sustainability investments. The Quilt team is led by two additional co-founders: CTO Matthew Knoll and COO Bill Kee. Prior to Quilt, Knoll managed hardware engineering teams within Area 120 and X, the moonshot factory – another Google property. Kee, too, managed product teams across Google for more than 15 years.
Together, the founders bring a vast and varied wealth of experience across hardware and software development to Quilt. They have successfully built a team of personnel who have served with equally notable companies: Tesla, Apple, Twitter, and Nest, to name a few. In fact, Nest Co-founder Matt Rogers is participating in the seed round through his firm, Incite Ventures.
“At Nest we reimagined the lowly thermostat to make homes smarter, more comfortable, and more efficient – Quilt brings that same innovative vision to heat pumps,” said Rogers. “Quilt’s heat pumps and room-by-room climate control system will catalyze heat pump adoption, improve home comfort, and help slash household carbon emissions.”
In addition to hardware and software development, the team is also solving traditional installation challenges at a time when government incentives have accelerated interest in the systems. Incentives offered in the Inflation Reduction Act, for example, provide up to $10,000 in rebates and tax credits for heat pumps. Quilt aims to foster rapid adoption by making these new systems not only affordable, but dramatically better and easier to have installed in the home.
To further accelerate adoption, Quilt has built a network of vetted HVAC professionals, partners, and organizations that can handle installations at the local level and make the consumer experience seamless. Much as Tesla is credited with creating a national network of charging stations to accelerate electric vehicle adoption, Quilt is taking a similar tack with HVAC services.
“We all know heat pumps are cheaper and cleaner than burning gas, but Quilt makes the first and only model you want to show off because it’s also sleeker,” added Chris Sacca, founder of Lowercarbon Capital.
“While there have been significant mechanical and electrical engineering advancements in heat pump technology, software innovation has been limited. The Quilt team has combined all of the latest advancements to create an unparalleled experience for homeowners. We couldn’t be more excited to lend our support,” explained Anna Patterson, Managing Partner at Gradient Ventures.
About Quilt
Founded in Redwood City, CA, Quilt builds home heat pump systems for a better climate. Its mission is to move humanity off fossil fuel heating. Quilt’s integrated hardware and software system offers stylish design and enables room-by-room control for maximum comfort and efficiency. Quilt makes it easy to upgrade from traditional heating systems through its technology-enabled, direct-to-homeowner purchase-and-installation experience. For more information, visit www.quilt.com.
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Heath Fradkoff
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