A California-based company announced Aug. 25 that it will expand into Austin and hire 125 employees within the next 30 to 90 days.

Nest Labs Inc., a smart-learning thermostat company based in Palo Alto, is partnering with Austin-based SPOT Consulting LLC to expand its customer services. Nest and SPOT officially opened a 27,000 square foot technical support and customer service center at 6800 Burleson Road in the Bergstrom Technology Center about two weeks ago, SPOT Consulting CEO Alton Martin said. Through the partnership, the two companies would like to have about 150 employees in Austin in the future.

Mark Wilhelm, director of customer support at Nest Labs, said the company chose to expand in Austin because of the city's efforts in sustainability and because Nest already has customers in the area. Wilhelm said the company has more customers in Texas than any other state.

"The personality fit with Austin is fantastic for Nest," Wilhelm said. "We like to think of ourselves as a green company, and Austin likes to think of itself as a green city. I think that mix where people are interested in saving energy and saving the environment, at the same time saving money, is important to all of us. I think it's a good match for us."

Martin said the partnership will allow Nest and SPOT to provide a more non-traditional customer experience that focuses on financial and operational transparency. Nest is also partnering with other local employment agencies to help them find new employees, Wilhelm said.

"I had a vision of how I wanted to provide support for our customers and break the mold of a classic outsourced situation," Wilhelm said. "We wanted to partner with someone, we wanted to have Nest employees in the call center working with SPOT employees," Wilhelm said.

Lew Little, chairman of the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, said the partnership is part of the chamber's efforts to help economic development and create jobs.

"This is a great opportunity for us in Austin to bring the Nest team in," he said. "It's really great to see businesses working together in a way in which we can build on each others' strengths, and [SPOT] is exactly that business."

Nest specializes in thermostats that are customized to its users schedules. The thermostat can program itself to turn on and off, and users can control it via their smartphones. The thermostat can help to reduce heating and cooling bills by 20 percent.

In addition to Nest, 15 companies from California have expanded into Austin in the past year, including Apple Inc., Visa Inc., and HID Global Corp., according to the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

For more information about SPOT's available jobs in Austin, visit the company's website.