HONG KONG, July 22, 2014 /PRNewswire/ — Ambi Climate — the delightfully simple add-on upgrade that simplifies your comfort and optimises your home’s air conditioning (“AC”) — has launched on Crowdtivate, the Asia-focused crowdfunding site. Crowdtivate is created by Starhub, Singapore’s first fully integrated info-communications company, in partnership with Crowdonomics, the crowd-powered technology solutions and strategic advisory firm based in Singapore. “We are honoured to be selected as one of the launch products on Crowdtivate, the first site to truly support the Asian entrepreneur,” says Julian Lee, the CEO of Ambi Labs. “We have been exploring, for some time now, how best to crowdfund our Asia-focused product, Ambi Climate. While certain country specific crowdfunding platforms exist, this is the first platform that can reach consumers throughout Asia.”
Ambi Climate solves common AC usage complaints caused by the inability of current air-conditioners to automatically maintain constant thermal comfort. Over the past two years, Ambi Labs has conducted online surveys across ten key markets in Asia, with over 4,000 respondents. Over 72% of respondents in the region identified with at least one comfort challenge, such as finding the room too warm, too cool, too dry or too humid at times.
Ambi Labs’ research indicates that these difficulties are largely due to the outdated design of existing AC remotes. Julian commented: “Current remote controls encourage the user to focus on power and temperature buttons, so it is unsurprising that many users engage in inefficient on/off control behaviour — they switch on their ACs when they are hot, and switch them off when it gets too cold. The resulting ‘yo yo-ing’ in temperature, as some of our research participants called it, is both uncomfortable and a waste of energy. They have also complained about needing to adjust their ACs as much as every 30 minutes, and some habitually wake up in the middle of the night to adjust the settings.”
This product resonates strongly with the Asian audience, with Ambi Climate recently winning the People’s Choice Award at Echelon 2014, the leading startup event in Asia. Many consumers have also expressed their support, leaving messages of encouragement like: “The aircon at my office is cranky, sometimes being too cold and other times being not cold enough. It is quite tiring to constantly switch [it] on and off… Hope this device can settled [sic] my problem and others like me“ and “[Needing] to always tweak the air conditioner to a comfortable temperature perfectly describes me. I’m excited that there is a product in the market that solves my daily frustration”.
Julian continued, “Other global crowdfunding platforms seek the majority of their backers from US or European markets, leading to devices that are designed to solve problems focused on western habits and lifestyles. At Ambi Labs, our mission is to apply big data and machine learning techniques to solve problems faced by Asian households, so the Crowdtivate platform is perfectly tailored for us. Ambi Climate is the world’s first AC upgrade with predictive comfort. Using machine learning, it predicts your in-room climate and optimises the settings on your air conditioner — a device that is installed in over 80% of households in leading cities of Asia, and accounts for up to 50% of energy bills.”
Ambi Climate is now accepting pre-orders on Crowdtivate. To celebrate the launch of this new platform, Ambi Labs is announcing the Ambi Climate Team Challenge, and offering up to a 25% rebate to the winning team.
To avail of this promotion:
- Back the Ambi Climate campaign on Crowdtivate (http://www.ambiclimate.com/crowdtivate)
- Join a team by using the hashtags #[teamname] #ambified within 24 hours of backing our campaign.
- Fill out this form so your team name can be matched to your Crowdtivate account.
For precise mechanics on this, and other exciting promotions, please refer to http://bit.ly/AmbiTeamsDay1 or to our campaign page at: www.ambiclimate.com/crowdtivate