GE led a $22 million investment round in a San Francisco-based company that specializes in modular energy-efficient commercial buildings.
Project Frog manufactures commercial building systems for educational and government organizations, healthcare offices and retail spaces.
The company combines semi-custom designs with a pre-engineered kit of energy-efficient building components. This enables higher quality, more environmentally sustainable, faster and cheaper construction, they say.
Through advanced performance modeling, Project Frog analyzes how its buildings will perform in each location, allowing owners to optimize a building kit to match their desired performance.
The kits are delivered to project sites ready for assembly, and typically take one to six months to construct – less than half the time required for traditional construction.
Project Frog says its buildings use at least 25% less energy than the strictest building codes in the US, and as much as 80% less energy in certain parts of the country.
"We make the complicated and lengthy process of new construction faster and easier for our customers by providing a kit of high precision, sustainable parts that are optimized based on the structure’s size, use and location," says Ann Hand, CEO of Project Frog.
The company is currently constructing one of its buildings at GE’s Learning Center in Ossining, NY.
GE’s investment in the company is part of the second phase of its Ecomagination Challenge, which was launched in January as part of its commitment to improve building energy efficiency through new technologies.
Thus far, GE and its partners have invested or committed to invest $134 million in energy and power grid technology developers announced as winners of the Innovation Challenge. The Challenge has also produced 22 new commercial partnerships and resulted in the acquisition of FMC-Tech, a smart grid technology company from the first phase.
Other investors in Project Frog include Claremont Creek Ventures, Greener Capital Partners and RockPort Capital Partners.
Project Frog says the $22 million investment will help it expand its sales pipeline and execute on orders.
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