The HVAC industry is undergoing a transformation. As private equity firms consolidate the industry, traditional security guard craftsmen are on the verge of retirement. Airship is building software solutions for the next chapter in HVAC.
Airship builds point-of-sale software that gives HVAC contractors the knowledge they need to make more sales, including the energy-efficient heat pump incentive programs they need to earn the rebates their customers deserve. Masu. Craig Battin, co-founder and CEO of Airship, said the software is useful because many potential HVAC contractors have not yet adopted any technology and still rely on pen and paper to do their jobs. We said it's intended to be intuitive and easy to deploy.
Battin said that despite the low level of technology adoption in the industry, Airship aims to build an enterprise-grade solution that is well-positioned to sell to a growing number of HVAC roll-up companies with private equity backing. He said that
“The entry of private equity into this space, that's the tip of the spear,” Battin said. “We are currently in the early stages of software implementation. Where we started is now preparing us to continue building products. We benefit from the ever-changing ground beneath this space. ”
Airship co-founder and executive chairman Michael Sachse told TechCrunch that many HVAC companies are focused on receiving more calls to drive business. He believes a better use of his time is to increase the ticket size of the business he already has. He added that so far, the average airship user has been able to increase their ticket size by 20%.
Sachs said he got the idea for Airship while working as CEO of Dandelion Energy, a residential geothermal heating and cooling startup. Sachs said the role led him down the rabbit hole of why heat pump adoption is so difficult.
“I started thinking about it more and it became very clear that it was all about home contractors and construction tools, and I had some first-hand experience with how limited that was. I did,” Zack said.
Sachs mentioned his idea to early-stage fintech company QED last year, where he was introduced to Battin, who had years of experience running startups and was looking for his next project. The two began building the airship last fall. The company currently has 10 design partners and is operating in beta. They are planning an initial launch in November before a wider rollout early next year.
Now, the company is coming out of stealth, announcing a partnership with service software unicorn ServiceTitan and just raising $4 million in a pre-seed round. The funding round was led by QED, with participation from Silence, Lorimer Ventures, Four Acres Capital, and Twine Ventures.
Airship plans to use the capital to hire and continue developing its products. Battin said the POS software is just the first building block to an eventual platform company that will assist HVAC contractors in areas such as payments and warranty and subscription management.
There are many other companies looking to build technology for HVAC contractors. Airship's new partner, ServiceTitan, is one of them. The company has raised $1.5 billion in VC funding. Jobber is another company that has raised more than $183 million to help HVAC contractors schedule and invoice. Service Fusion also offers field management tools and raised $10 million in venture capital before being acquired by EverCommerce in 2020.
Airship believes it maintains an edge in this crowded market by focusing on the tools contractors can bring to the field to make more money on every sale.
“One of the things that excites me is that we really love working with these customers,” Sachs says. “We get really honest and quick feedback. They're very interested in improving their business. We're looking forward to the next few years and seeing how our customers use this.” I’m really looking forward to it.”