Boldr has raised $5 million in seed funding to grow its HVAC contractor platform across North America. The round was led by Unconventional Ventures, with participation from Ada Ventures, Tetrad Ventures, Davidovs Venture Collective, Roxbury Asset Management, Inclimo Climate Tech Fund, Prosegur, Techstars, S20 Fund, PropelX, and strategic HVAC industry investors.
The company is building around a Universal Thermostat designed to work across a wide range of North American HVAC equipment, including ductless mini-splits and conventional central systems. Its wireless setup communicates with an equipment-side subbase, which reduces the need to pull new thermostat wire during installation.
That installation challenge is central to Boldr’s pitch. Missing thermostat wire can turn a simple install into hours of fishing wire, drilling, and patching drywall. Boldr estimates its system can save $300 to $500 in labor and material costs per applicable job.
Beyond the hardware, each installation feeds into Boldr’s contractor platform. The platform is intended to give HVAC businesses data and diagnostics across their installed base, helping identify problems earlier, cut unnecessary truck rolls, and support recurring service relationships.
The new funding will be used to expand beyond ductless controls into residential and commercial central HVAC, speed up development of the contractor platform, and broaden adoption and distribution across the US and Canada, according to Dealroom.co.
The round ranks in the first percentile by size among seed rounds in Boldr's sector and country over the trailing 48 months, based on a sample of 67 deals. In plain terms, it sits at the smaller end of comparable raises.
Longer term, Boldr sees an energy opportunity in connected HVAC systems. The company views HVAC systems as some of the largest energy assets in the home and aims for millions of connected homes to eventually provide flexible capacity back to the grid. For now, its near-term focus is on offering contractors a control system that can be installed across more equipment, faster, while also providing software intended to create value after installation.
