January 12, 2021 – Bluon, Inc. a rapidly growing company in the HVAC-R space, with a wildly popular support app for HVAC technicians,today announced the closing of its Series B round with $27.6 million in equity financing adding to its recently completed $9.0M in venture debt. The new capital will be primarily used in developing Bluon’s e-commerce platform (BluonLive) and in particular for software development and rapid growth in its sales teams and technician support teams.
The round was led by Bluon’s existing primary capital partner, Ecosystem
Integrity Fund (EIF), and included considerable contributions from MKB, a
Canadian growth equity fund focused on innovative companies that can drive
environmental and social change, and most notably from two significant
HVAC industry players - Reece and Ferguson through their venture arms -
Superseed Ventures and Ferguson Ventures respectively. The participation
from Reece and Ferguson shows clear support for Bluon’s vision to transform
its super sticky support platform into the first brand agnostic, demand
focused e-commerce platform serving the HVAC-R industry - a platform that
can complement their own sales channels.
Bluon’s support platform – which continues to capture the attention of the
booming HVAC-R industry – is a revolutionary mobile app that makes HVAC
technicians in the field notably more productive, more efficient, and more
capable. By making technicians more productive, Bluon is solving the
biggest challenge facing the HVAC-R industry - the skilled labor shortage.
Ultimately, Bluon enables contractors to complete more jobs each and every
day, thus creating more revenue for HVAC-R distributors and OEMs industry
wide.
“This is a seminal moment for Bluon. With the caliber and type of investors
participating and our ever-growing list of commercial partners, it is clear the
HVAC-R industry can see the power and potential of Bluon’s demand based
support platform and our imminent evolution into the first true brand
agnostic, e-commerce platform in all of HVAC-R,” said Peter Capuciati,
chairman and CEO at Bluon.
"We are growing an exciting portfolio of companies that transform the way
contractors, such as HVAC technicians and Plumbers, work and live” said
Chris Pattenden, Head of Investments at Supeseed Ventures. We are excited
to partner with Bluon and join their journey to provide HVAC technicians fast
support, when and where they need it.”
The Bluon app and support platform is the first mobile app to become self-
adopted at scale by HVAC-R technicians - with nearly 30% of the US market
registered as members and 2% of the market joining each month. In
addition to being self-adopted, the platform is brand agnostic - allowing its
member technicians to have a single source of support for virtually all of
their jobs - making it truly unique within the HVAC-R space.
With its recent strategic acquisition of XREF Publishing Company, nearly one-
third of all HVAC-R techs in the U.S. on its support platform, and an e-
commerce strategy committed to enhancing and expanding local
relationships between technicians and their local distributors, Bluon has
rapidly emerged as the clear leader in the race to become the dominant,
brand agnostic e-commerce platform for the $70B HVAC-R Industry.
About Bluon
Bluon recognizes that HVAC-R techs are the heart and soul of the industry
and the ultimate drivers of its efficiency and innovation. Bluon’s support
platform is a revolutionary mobile app that offers tools, training and 24/7
tech support to HVAC-R technicians in the field. Bluon is the first mobile app
platform to aggregate detailed technical information on more than 45,000
unique HVAC models, further providing technicians with the information they
need to be effective and proficient on the job. With more than 175,000
downloads, 85,000 onboarded member technicians (growing by 6,500 each
month) and hundreds of distributors already in the Bluon network, it has
become the largest and fastest-growing support platform and community in
HVAC-R. Fueled by the feedback from its members, Bluon is set to
revolutionize the way in which technicians and their local distributors
interact, enabling both parties to do more with less. For more information
about Bluon, visit www.bluon.com.
About Superseed
Superseed Ventures is a VC fund and venture studio focused on investing,
scaling and building trade tech startups. We focus on ideas that have the
potential to redefine how tradespeople live and work in the future.
Our focused mandate allows us to build deep industry expertise and build
value in our portfolio companies through a hands-on partnership approach.
We are backed by The Reece Group (ASX: REH) and are building an exciting
portfolio of ventures across Australia, New Zealand and North America. Our
partnership with The Reece Group provides our portfolio with unparalleled
access to one of the world’s leading trade retailers with over 200,000
customers across 800+ locations globally.