AirEx is backed by barclays
Airex is backed by Barclays to accelerate decarbonisation of existing UK housing stock. Investment allows cleantech start-up Airex to expedite expansion plans for its smart airbrick technology, driving the transition to low-carbon housing stock.
18 June, 2021 - Airex, an energy efficient smart home technology company, today announced it has raised new funding from Barclays. The investment was made under Barclays’ Sustainable Impact Capital initiative, set up to back companies that are focused on sustainability and driving the transition towards net zero.
Airex is a rapidly growing cleantech start-up, designing and manufacturing the UK’s first smart airbrick technology, helping householders reduce their energy bills without compromising air quality. The novel solution disrupts the building retrofit market by being a smart, connected homes platform, without the complexity of the tech, with the potential to lift millions of households out of fuel poverty.
Founded in 2016, Airex has deployed thousands of units across the social housing sector, helping fuel poor households reduce their carbon footprint whilst saving money on their energy bills. Furthermore, social landlords benefit from the data analytics platform, enabling preventative maintenance. The investment from Barclays will help Airex achieve accelerated commercial growth and obtain critical industry certifications, which will fast-track the integration of Airex products into the UK housing sector.
Airex provides an easy-to-install, low-cost solution for reducing fabric heat loss, improving thermal comfort and protecting residents’ health. The patented technology is approved by UK energy regulator, Ofgem, and has recently successfully completed the UK’s 1st Demonstration Action under the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme, with 12% heating energy savings independently validated based on robust field trial. Across millions of UK homes, Airex’s customers will collectively save over 126 million tonnes of lifetime carbon emission, at full UK market penetration.
Agnes Czako, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Airex said: “The decarbonisation of homes is absolutely crucial in the fight to reach net-zero emissions targets, and Airex is positioned to be a low-cost, low-risk smart technology to help facilitate the retrofit challenge faced by UK’s domestic building stock to achieve these ambitious goals. Barclays’ investment will allow us to accelerate our plans to grow nationally and beyond. The financial support and extensive expertise this investment brings us will accelerate the execution of our vision – to become the ‘no brainer’ solution for social landlords and homeowners that want to reduce energy consumption in a non-disruptive way while reducing their carbon footprint.”
James Ferrier, Head of Sustainable Impact Capital at Barclays, said: “We are incredibly excited to be supporting Airex on their journey to decarbonise the housing sector. Their technology has the power to positively impact not only the environment, but also households’ social welfare.”
About Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital initiative:
As part of the firm’s broader commitments, Barclays will invest £175m of its own capital, led by the Principal Investments team, in fast-growing, innovative, environmentally-focused companies whose values are aligned with those of Barclays and which target the goals and timelines of the Paris Agreement. Investments will be strategic to Barclays, its clients and the communities it serves, with clear scalable propositions that deliver both environmental benefits and economic returns.
Media Enquiries:
Airex: press@airex.tech
Barclays: holly.brown@barclays.com
