This week, we interviewed Hetal Parekh from EnerYields.

Let’s get to it!

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Hetal Parekh. I am the founder of EnerYields, which makes it easy for building owners to save time and money on green construction and retrofits. The platform is powered by the most comprehensive database of its kind, complete with hard-to-find information about all green incentives and financing across both private and public sectors.

What problem does your product/service solve?

I discovered the need for EnerYields during my PhD at Carnegie Mellon, which was focused on identifying policy to catalyze green investments in commercial properties. Through interactions with numerous stakeholders, I found that access to financing was one of the biggest hurdles. Green incentives weren’t getting used because they were hard to find, and even harder to understand. Following validation from the industry for my research, I began building what is EnerYields today- to democratize ‘going green’ by improving access to information. EnerYields simplifies and standardizes green incentives and financing data and makes it available to all buildings. We help owners find the money that’s available to them, and then help them get the money they’ve found. All this is powered by our unique, comprehensive database housing green incentives and financing worth hundreds of millions, across both private, as well as the public sector.

What are you most excited about right now?

Being an energy efficiency enthusiast myself, I’m excited about the climate consciousness that has come about recently. Many leaders and thinkers like Bill Gates & President Biden are advocating for all industries to shift towards sustainable practices and operations to reduce their climate impact. Biden Administration’s $ 2T plan to promote clean energy and green retrofits for commercial buildings will significantly help reduce the ‘green premium’ in the building industry.

What’s next for you?

I’m excited that EnerYields has been selected for the 2021 Cohort of VentureBridge program, which is an initiative of the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship exclusively focused on helping Carnegie Mellon alumni founders succeed in their entrepreneurial ventures.

What’s a cause you’re passionate about and why?

I believe the work that Oswal Mitra Mandal is doing in India is quite noble. Even the pandemic, they have provided free healthcare to a lot of distressed families, which has brought relief to those families.

Thanks to Hetal for sharing her story. If you’d like to connect, find her on LinkedIn here.

We’re constantly looking for great real estate tech entrepreneurs to feature. If that’s you, please read this post — then drop us a line (Community @ geekestate dot com).