Fast Company: Cash-strapped businesses turn to this company when they want to get energy efficient

March 18th, 2025 - Fast Company featured Budderfly as one of it's 50 most innovative companies of 2025. 

“'We literally have training for our salespeople on answering ‘That sounds too good to be true,’ ” says Al Subbloie, Budderfly founder and CEO. His Connecticut-based company takes over customers’ utility bills, pays for facilities upgrades, and uses its AI-powered software to monitor energy use. It then bills customers up to 5% less than what they would have paid their electric company before the upgrades, keeping most of the resulting savings. Last year, the company expanded its portfolio to more than 7,000 facilities—including franchises like McDonald’s, Orangetheory, and Applebee’s—doubling its annual recurring revenue to more than $200 million.

Budderfly says its efforts helped businesses save more than 155 million kWh of energy last year at an average savings of 30%—all while cutting emissions equivalent to taking 23,000 passenger vehicles off the road for a year. In 2024, Budderfly began applying its outsourced approach to water management; it’s already signed up some 400 customers."

Read the full article here.

[Illustration: Fran Pulido]