Article
Nexus Pro
6
min read
James Dice

The Lens: Measurabl + Wegowise

October 19, 2022

Hey gamechangers!

Welcome to The Lens, a monthly-ish recurring series where I unpack the strategy and context behind the news in as few words as possible.  For past editions, check out Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol. 5, Vol. 6, Vol. 7, Vol. 8, Vol. 9, and Vol. 10.

For Volume 11, let's talk about Measurabl's acquisition of Wegowise. This builds on Volume 8, which covered their acquisition of Hatch Data.

Enjoy!


What happened?

Measurabl, a software and service provider focused on ESG data and reporting, acquired energy management software provider WegoWise.

Why?

Obviously the bigger picture here is that decarbonization is becoming a core business issue in commercial real estate. We've covered that a lot in the past, so let's talk about 'Why?' from a product & platform perspective...

As we discussed in Volume 8, Measurabl's Hatch Data acquisition was all about expansion along the decarbonization journey. The ability to zoom into each site and get down to the details: think specific actions, hourly data, etc. WegoWise surely has some features that can help with that horizontal expansion, but that's not what this acquisition is about.

First and foremost, it's about buying customers. WegoWise had 1.6% of the US multifamily apartment market at the time of acquisition. Virtually all of those apartment buildings are additive for Measurabl.

The WegoWise product also includes functionality designed for renters and single family home owners, negating the need to build those features from scratch as Measurabl expands into these new territories.

*> Institutional money is moving into single family homes. There's no more preface of residential or commercial—it's just real estate. Measurabl must be a genuine real estate platform with no limits.

And the many concerns of affordability, of environmental impact, that we are in the business of helping with, apply in residential too.

*
—Matt Ellis, Measurabl Founder and CEO

Second, this is about vertical integration. Before the acquisition, Measurabl used Urjanet to acquire utility bill data. WegoWise has that functionality built-in, meaning Measurabl can bring automated data acquisition in house, control their customer's most important data source, and increase margins by cutting Urjanet out of the stack.

This second strategic driver is especially important when you consider Measurabl's new data platform offering. Driving down margins theoretically means more API calls and drives economies of scale that will make this offering more difficult to compete with.

> So you have ground truth from utility bills to systems—that's a powerful combination. That means our customers get a better experience and we control the business model, but it doesn't just benefit us. I think one of the things that you do when you platform is you need to make sure you have an ecosystem and you need to make sure you add value to all those ecosystem players and partners.

Context

If you've been following these last 5 volumes of The Lens, I hope you're beginning to see the same patterns I'm seeing:  

  • Large capital raises are fueling acquisitions and consolidation in decarbonization software. Measurabl buying Hatch and WegoWise. Deepki buying Fabriq. Arcadia buying Urjanet.
  • Consolidation is coming in the form of horizontal integration of adjacent use cases, vertical integration of infrastructure layers, and buying customers. Deepki buying Fabriq's UK customers and site-level functionality. Arcadia buying Urjanet's infrastructure and commercial customer based. Measurabl buying WegoWise's infrastructure and residential customers. Sparkfund buying one of their implementers.
  • Decarbonization data is now a product and there are now several competing decarb APIs, where platform providers are combining source utility data with data from other third party sources to support all kinds of stakeholders and all sorts of use cases.

It's a land grab and a data grab. It's accelerating towards a destination where there are only a few big players.

These big players are looking to serve many different use cases to many different stakeholders and it's unclear where the acquisition spree will end. Will they swallow up FDD? Will they swallow up IAQ? Will they kill the energy spreadsheet and swallow up decarbonization project development?

Time will tell.


That’s all for The Lens this month!

If you want more on this topic, we'll discuss this in the next edition of the M&A Roundup - our ongoing podcast series on mergers and acquisitions in our industry.

Thanks for reading,

—James

P.S. These are obviously just my opinions that I always welcome feedback on. Three questions for ya:

  • Did you like this? If not, let me know by hitting reply or leaving a comment on Nexus Connect.
  • Where am I wrong?
  • What news should I turn The Lens on next month?

Sign Up for Access or Log In to Continue Viewing

As we discussed in Volume 8, Measurabl's Hatch Data acquisition was all about expansion along the decarbonization journey. The ability to zoom into each site and get down to the details: think specific actions, hourly data, etc. WegoWise surely has some features that can help with that horizontal expansion, but that's not what this acquisition is about.

First and foremost, it's about buying customers. WegoWise had 1.6% of the US multifamily apartment market at the time of acquisition. Virtually all of those apartment buildings are additive for Measurabl.

The WegoWise product also includes functionality designed for renters and single family home owners, negating the need to build those features from scratch as Measurabl expands into these new territories.

*> Institutional money is moving into single family homes. There's no more preface of residential or commercial—it's just real estate. Measurabl must be a genuine real estate platform with no limits.

And the many concerns of affordability, of environmental impact, that we are in the business of helping with, apply in residential too.

*
—Matt Ellis, Measurabl Founder and CEO

Second, this is about vertical integration. Before the acquisition, Measurabl used Urjanet to acquire utility bill data. WegoWise has that functionality built-in, meaning Measurabl can bring automated data acquisition in house, control their customer's most important data source, and increase margins by cutting Urjanet out of the stack.

This second strategic driver is especially important when you consider Measurabl's new data platform offering. Driving down margins theoretically means more API calls and drives economies of scale that will make this offering more difficult to compete with.

> So you have ground truth from utility bills to systems—that's a powerful combination. That means our customers get a better experience and we control the business model, but it doesn't just benefit us. I think one of the things that you do when you platform is you need to make sure you have an ecosystem and you need to make sure you add value to all those ecosystem players and partners.

Context

If you've been following these last 5 volumes of The Lens, I hope you're beginning to see the same patterns I'm seeing:  

  • Large capital raises are fueling acquisitions and consolidation in decarbonization software. Measurabl buying Hatch and WegoWise. Deepki buying Fabriq. Arcadia buying Urjanet.
  • Consolidation is coming in the form of horizontal integration of adjacent use cases, vertical integration of infrastructure layers, and buying customers. Deepki buying Fabriq's UK customers and site-level functionality. Arcadia buying Urjanet's infrastructure and commercial customer based. Measurabl buying WegoWise's infrastructure and residential customers. Sparkfund buying one of their implementers.
  • Decarbonization data is now a product and there are now several competing decarb APIs, where platform providers are combining source utility data with data from other third party sources to support all kinds of stakeholders and all sorts of use cases.

It's a land grab and a data grab. It's accelerating towards a destination where there are only a few big players.

These big players are looking to serve many different use cases to many different stakeholders and it's unclear where the acquisition spree will end. Will they swallow up FDD? Will they swallow up IAQ? Will they kill the energy spreadsheet and swallow up decarbonization project development?

Time will tell.


That’s all for The Lens this month!

If you want more on this topic, we'll discuss this in the next edition of the M&A Roundup - our ongoing podcast series on mergers and acquisitions in our industry.

Thanks for reading,

—James

P.S. These are obviously just my opinions that I always welcome feedback on. Three questions for ya:

  • Did you like this? If not, let me know by hitting reply or leaving a comment on Nexus Connect.
  • Where am I wrong?
  • What news should I turn The Lens on next month?

Sign Up for Access or Log In to Continue Viewing

As we discussed in Volume 8, Measurabl's Hatch Data acquisition was all about expansion along the decarbonization journey. The ability to zoom into each site and get down to the details: think specific actions, hourly data, etc. WegoWise surely has some features that can help with that horizontal expansion, but that's not what this acquisition is about.

First and foremost, it's about buying customers. WegoWise had 1.6% of the US multifamily apartment market at the time of acquisition. Virtually all of those apartment buildings are additive for Measurabl.

The WegoWise product also includes functionality designed for renters and single family home owners, negating the need to build those features from scratch as Measurabl expands into these new territories.

*> Institutional money is moving into single family homes. There's no more preface of residential or commercial—it's just real estate. Measurabl must be a genuine real estate platform with no limits.

And the many concerns of affordability, of environmental impact, that we are in the business of helping with, apply in residential too.

*
—Matt Ellis, Measurabl Founder and CEO

Second, this is about vertical integration. Before the acquisition, Measurabl used Urjanet to acquire utility bill data. WegoWise has that functionality built-in, meaning Measurabl can bring automated data acquisition in house, control their customer's most important data source, and increase margins by cutting Urjanet out of the stack.

This second strategic driver is especially important when you consider Measurabl's new data platform offering. Driving down margins theoretically means more API calls and drives economies of scale that will make this offering more difficult to compete with.

> So you have ground truth from utility bills to systems—that's a powerful combination. That means our customers get a better experience and we control the business model, but it doesn't just benefit us. I think one of the things that you do when you platform is you need to make sure you have an ecosystem and you need to make sure you add value to all those ecosystem players and partners.

Context

If you've been following these last 5 volumes of The Lens, I hope you're beginning to see the same patterns I'm seeing:  

  • Large capital raises are fueling acquisitions and consolidation in decarbonization software. Measurabl buying Hatch and WegoWise. Deepki buying Fabriq. Arcadia buying Urjanet.
  • Consolidation is coming in the form of horizontal integration of adjacent use cases, vertical integration of infrastructure layers, and buying customers. Deepki buying Fabriq's UK customers and site-level functionality. Arcadia buying Urjanet's infrastructure and commercial customer based. Measurabl buying WegoWise's infrastructure and residential customers. Sparkfund buying one of their implementers.
  • Decarbonization data is now a product and there are now several competing decarb APIs, where platform providers are combining source utility data with data from other third party sources to support all kinds of stakeholders and all sorts of use cases.

It's a land grab and a data grab. It's accelerating towards a destination where there are only a few big players.

These big players are looking to serve many different use cases to many different stakeholders and it's unclear where the acquisition spree will end. Will they swallow up FDD? Will they swallow up IAQ? Will they kill the energy spreadsheet and swallow up decarbonization project development?

Time will tell.


That’s all for The Lens this month!

If you want more on this topic, we'll discuss this in the next edition of the M&A Roundup - our ongoing podcast series on mergers and acquisitions in our industry.

Thanks for reading,

—James

P.S. These are obviously just my opinions that I always welcome feedback on. Three questions for ya:

  • Did you like this? If not, let me know by hitting reply or leaving a comment on Nexus Connect.
  • Where am I wrong?
  • What news should I turn The Lens on next month?

Hey gamechangers!

Welcome to The Lens, a monthly-ish recurring series where I unpack the strategy and context behind the news in as few words as possible.  For past editions, check out Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol. 5, Vol. 6, Vol. 7, Vol. 8, Vol. 9, and Vol. 10.

For Volume 11, let's talk about Measurabl's acquisition of Wegowise. This builds on Volume 8, which covered their acquisition of Hatch Data.

Enjoy!


What happened?

Measurabl, a software and service provider focused on ESG data and reporting, acquired energy management software provider WegoWise.

Why?

Obviously the bigger picture here is that decarbonization is becoming a core business issue in commercial real estate. We've covered that a lot in the past, so let's talk about 'Why?' from a product & platform perspective...

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