Schneider Electric Ventures, the brand-new venture capital division of Schneider Electric has funded their first five equity investments. The global leader in energy management and automation solutions launched this dedicated VC unit to fund innovative and disruptive companies that will help the world transition away from fossil fuels and toward an electricity-driven economy.

One of those investments is Qmerit.  In a recent Forbes interview with Schneider Electric’s CEO, Jean-Pascal Tricoire, dubbed Qmerit the “Uber” for contractors and Maintenance, Repair and Operating (MRO) spend.

The average building owner spends $1.45 per square foot annually on parts, materials, and equipment for maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO). At Qmerit, we’ve worked with a lot of owners, and we know that due to limited resources, most have trouble lowering that cost. Let’s face it: it takes a significant amount of time to negotiate strategic contracts, not to mention educate your own employees as to why they should abide by those agreements.

$11.7M TO SOFTWARE MAKER THAT SAVES FIRMS MONEY

Seasoned Business Builder Gets VC Cash for New Co.

By Chris Casacchia

Monday, April 23, 2018

Serial entrepreneur Tracy K. Price has been running down a dream for more than two decades.

A recent venture round backed by two strategic investors with deep global financial and business connections has given it life.

Business software maker Qmerit Inc., which Price spun out a few years ago in Irvine, completed its first institutional funding round, raising $11.7 million. The investment was led by El Segundo-based Strandview Capital and included innogy Ventures and a fund run by Schneider Electric SA.

IRVINE, CALIF. (PRWEB) APRIL 04, 2018

Qmerit, a leader in cloud-based MRO supply chain solutions, announced it has completed its first venture capital financing of $11.75 million. Strandview Capital led the investment alongside two strategic investors -- Schneider Electric’s fund, an investment vehicle of Schneider Electric, a US $30 billion leader in energy management and automation; and innogy Ventures, the investment arm of Germany-based energy group innogy SE. Kevin Covert from Strandview and Heriberto Diarte from Schneider Electric will join Qmerit’s Board of Directors.

Bringing Meritocracy to Workforce Management

The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report stating that over 40 percent of the workforce in the country comprises contingent workers, expected to grow to 50 percent by 2020. Having extensive knowledge of the skills and performance of not just the internal workforce, but also a myriad of sub-contractors, retirees, and part-timers, has now become the central agenda for medium-to-large sized organizations. “In my career experience, I realized that there was no way to quantify the performance or skills of distributed, frontline human capital,” recalls Tracy K. Price, founder and CEO of Qmerit. Over the course of his diverse career—from starting as a frontline worker and working his way up in the entrepreneurial ladder—Price noticed that the traditional annual performance reviews were often plagued by personal bias, subjectivity, and randomness, with no true factual context in the five-star or thumbs-up rating systems.

Based in Irvine, California, Qmerit created an innovative, enterprise-grade software platform for service organizations based on Microsoft Azure. Managing direct employees, temporary workers, and subcontractors on a single cloud-based platform, the Qmerit meritocracy-based engine allocates the best resources at the best value for every service request, motivates the workforce to deliver consistent service on every service job, and continuously measures performance to provide feedback. The startup has already secured industry-leading customers such as BMW North America, and it looks forward to creating workforce meritocracies for service organizations in multiple market verticals.

BMW of North America announces that Qmerit will provide BMW i and BMW iPerformance drivers with customized installation of home charging solutions to enable convenient and reliable vehicle charging. Customers can easily begin the BMW Installation Services process at www.bmwcharging.com. Along with the BMW Charging Station, BMW Installation Services are part of the premium 360°

Qmerit, Inc., the creator of an innovative new SaaS platform for efficient labor sourcing in the technical services and home healthcare markets, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mark Heaney as its Board Director. In his role, Heaney will help the company continue to expand its offering and communicate the Qmerit value proposition to the home healthcare market place.

When Brandman University partners with a business or organization, it looks for ones which share the university’s values, most importantly the importance of higher education and lifelong learning. Some of those partners form Irvine’s Premier Partners Advisory Council and they offer their organizations’ feedback about what they need from university graduates.

Experienced Development Executive Brings Right Skills to Drive New Cloud-Based Labor Resource Technology to Market

Qmerit, Inc., the creator of an innovative new SaaS platform for efficient labor matching in the technical services and home health care markets, is pleased to announce the appointment of Manoj Puthenveetil as its vice president of software engineering. In his role, Puthenveetil -- who helped develop the technology -- will help the company go to market and oversee continued enhancement and delivery of the Qmerit technology platform.