Sir Tom Hunter invests in Onzo

The Ayrshire Entrepreneur's West Coast Capital business has bought shares in ONZO in a move that provided a big vote of confidence in the prospects for the firm.

Details of the investment were not disclosed. However, it is understood that West Coast made a multi-million pound investment in the funding round.

The investment will fund a major expansion at ONZO, which West Coast believes can play an important part in efforts to reduce energy consumption and associated emissions.

ONZO supplies products that let power firms and their customers draw on the huge amounts of information gathered by smart meters and the like to help find ways of reducing energy usage.

The technology can tell how much power individual items such as washing machines use. Power firms can use the information to help change demand patterns and to boost customer loyalty.

The company includes Scottish Hydroelectric owner SSE among its clients.

The investment reflects Sir Tom's belief that there will be massive demand for technologies like those developed by London-based ONZO to harness the power of analytical software and the internet.

A spokesman for the serial entrepreneur said: "Big data and analytics is a space we like as it drives efficiency; if you like if information is the oil, analytics is the engine. With ONZO we see a transformative software that benefits the power companies on the one hand and consumer on the other; it's a win win."

He said ONZO operates in a global market worth billions.

West Coast Capital recently made what is believed to have been another multi-million pound investment in a Silicon Valley based retail software business Order Dynamics, which also operates in the data analytics space.

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Sir Tom Hunter invests in Onzo