An app that could spell the end of the air-conditioning wars waged by grumpy office workers everywhere is among the first recipients of funding from Microsoft’s new early-stage investment group, Microsoft Ventures.
Comfy, a smart building app that crowd-sources user preferences and behavior patterns to adjust heating and cooling, raised $12 million in total Series B funding, according to an announcement by the company (first spotted by ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley). Other investors included Emergence Capital and CBRE, the commercial real estate firm.
Though the Oakland, CA-based company didn’t disclose how much Microsoft contributed to that total, the investment seems to confirm Redmond’s earlier statement that one focus of its early-stage funding would be business Software-as-a-Service companies.
“Our investment in Comfy represents one of the many ways we support innovation that improves productivity,” Nagraj Kashyap, Microsoft Ventures corporate vice president said. “With Comfy, employees are able to seamlessly control their physical environment and immediately improve productivity in the workplace.”
Microsoft Ventures launched last week with the explicit aim of giving Microsoft a bigger voice in conversations about cutting-edge trends in tech.