Verv, a brand, which sits under machine learning experts Green Running Ltd, has successfully raised £1,234,500 on Crowdcube in return for a 4.72% stake in the business.

With an initial target of £500,000, the campaign closed yesterday overfunding by 246 per cent and raising a total of £1,234,500. This new investment will be used to scale up manufacturing for their smart home product and further develop their blockchain based peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading solution (Verv 2.0), which will allow consumers who have renewable energy supplies to sell surplus power directly to their neighbours who may not have renewable tech.

The Verv home energy assistant, which will hand control over energy bills back to the consumer, is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based solution that transforms everyday household appliances into truly smart ones - connecting consumers to their electricity and creating a happier, healthier home.

Green Running founder, Peter Davies, who began the Verv project in 2015, wants to tackle the energy sector at its very core, by targeting each individual home and democratising data for consumers to generate positive social impact.

With 60% of people not able to understand their energy bills, Verv is looking to solve this problem by providing real-time updates on energy usage, broken down by individual appliance, via the mobile app. Verv also seeks to make consumers lives easier by telling them if their appliances, like their washing machine, are deteriorating before they actually break, even providing detail about where the fault lies. In addition, it can analyse the energy efficiency of each appliance and suggest more eco-friendly options, allowing consumers to make informed decisions about their energy use.

The investment will also allow the company to further develop their blockchain-based solution, Verv 2.0. The P2P energy trading solution uses advanced AI predictions to trade electricity on blockchain technology at the best price. With homeowners only using 30% of the renewable energy they generate, Verv’s P2P energy trading solution looks to tackle this and utilise the excess energy to improve access to affordable low carbon electricity for all households in the UK.

Peter Davies, CEO and founder at Verv said: “We entered into crowdfunding as we wanted a percentage of the company to be genuinely owned by the consumer. To receive this level of investment from the public is an incredible endorsement for all of the hard work the Verv team has done so far and we’re excited to have brought on board an incredible 1217 crowd investors join us on our journey. We’re on a mission to make homes smarter and more efficient by tackling energy at its core and it’s great to see that so many people share our vision. With this investment, we look forward to launching Verv and to moving forward with Verv 2.0.”

The plug and play solution, which requires no electrician to install, is currently available to pre-order directly from the Verv website, via Box.co.uk, Appliances Direct and at Ebuyer, retailing at £249, and will be in homes across the UK from mid-November 2017.