Internet of Things startup, SensorSuite, is looking to disrupt the property management space from the boiler room up. They have created a cloud based digital building assistant that brings high-end building automation features to small and medium sized property managers.
SensorSuite uses low cost sensors and cloud-based web and smartphone applications to shake up a market currently owned by the big guys. “Traditional building automation companies such as Honeywell and Johnson Controls are very expensive and complicated,” says CEO and Founder Robert Platek. “We are disrupting these dinosaurs on price, user experience and features”.
According to Platek there are literally millions of buildings that can use this technology that have nothing in place right now and with the building automation industry projected to be $50 billion by 2018 the opportunity for SensorSuite is quite significant.
The four person Ryerson Digital Media Zone startup just wrapped up their seed fund round earlier this month raising $200,000 through their network, grants and Ryerson’s new venture fund Ryerson Futures Inc. Platek told BetaKit that the funds will be going towards continued research and product development.
SensorSuite makes their money off both the sale of the hardware as well as a recurring monthly fee for use of their cloud software which runs about $199 per month. Their current product, BoilerLink, focuses on the boiler room, as it’s what Platek calls “the heart of the building” and as it deals with power generation, managers are quickly able to realize return on investment.
BoilerLink allows managers to remotely tweak the performance of their boiler to realize cost savings and mitigate risk by detecting things like water leaks, gas leaks and even monitoring of the boiler room door for improved security. According to SensorSuite, the average property manager company spends fourteen or more hours a week driving to buildings to check on data so remote monitoring also results in significant time savings.
The system is currently being piloted in over twenty buildings around the city of Toronto realizing thousands of dollars of savings for property managers and has amassed over five million data points to date. Platek says that SensorSuite aims to rollout features in the future which will utilize the aggregated data to help their clients make educated decisions for their portfolio based on benchmarks within their portfolio as well as against the buildings around them. The team also aims to make BoilerLink more of a turnkey solution which can be installed by any licensed professional, as the current system requires a custom setup by their team.
SensorSuite also plans to leave the boiler room into other areas to monitor and control including common spaces, in-suite and also other building types like factories, convenience stories and large event spaces. They recently secured a pilot with Maple Leaf Gardens where they will be monitoring the space for environmental data and insights on things like temperature, humidity and sound.