In front of an illustrious, albeit all male (we know, we asked) panel of judges at the New Diorama Theatre in London last night, six proptech start-ups pitched their businesses for the chance to claim as much as £150,000 of investment from VC investor Pi Labs.
The inaugural EG Techtalk Academy, in partnership with Pi Labs, CBRE and KPMG, saw nervous and excited entrepreneurs battle against a five-minute stopwatch and the threat of being hooted off stage before enduring 10 minutes of frank and tough questioning from a panel that comprised Dominic Wilson, managing director of Pi Labs; Nick Leslau, chairman of Prestbury; Chris Grigg, chief executive of British Land; Dave Eisenberg, senior vice president of digital enablement and technology at CBRE; Mike Sherwood, former managing director of Europe at Goldman Sachs; and Kevin Brown, founding partner of REV.
Six pitched but only one could be crowned the winner and take home the EG TechTalk Academy trophy, plus that investment with Pi Labs.
For the judges, the winner was clear. It was a business that appealed to the financial brains on the panel as well as those that understood the true bricks and mortar of the real estate business.
Demand Logic, led by Sonny Masero, is a piece of tech that feeds into existing building management systems and rapidly reads that data to provide a fitness regime for the building.
“The best way to explain Demand Logic is like a FitBit for buildings,” says Masero, “but rather than just monitoring the health of a building, we go deeper.
“We can not only tell you whether there is a health problem, whether it is functioning the way that it should, but we also have an online doctor or fitness trainer that can help you find the source of that problem – the specific piece of equipment or sensor that is causing the problem – and help you find a remedy.”
Watch Demand Logic’s pitch
Demand Logic’s “FitBit” looks at comfort and productivity issues in buildings, maintenance problems, and managing insurance risk, as well as energy saving.
“Getting the basics right around building systems is really critical,” says Masero. “We think there is a significant proportion of savings that can be delivered in using data just in the operations of buildings and making that operation much simpler.”
The product is sold as a software service. It is a single device that is installed in the building in less than three hours that securely connects the building network – the ventilation, heating, air conditioning, energy and utility meters and more – to the internet. Once connected, Demand Logic creates a virtual model of the building and starts “talking” to all the equipment in the building and gathers data.
Key metrics are around productivity, the impact the operation of the building is having on staff productivity; maintenance, how effectively maintenance is being delivered in improvement of the condition of the equipment; and energy wastage.
“This is a great opportunity for a young business like ours,” says Masero. “We are still struggling to raise our profile and help people understand how this kind of data intelligence and software service can be put at the heart of property management.
“We are in 10m sq ft of buildings but at the moment we are still seen more as an engineering tool, whereas we think there is real value in what we do in terms of the core delivery of property and real estate management services.”
Masero and his team will now sit down with the Pi Labs team to discuss the next phase of their journey.
Keep an eye out in EG next week for more on the event and going forward as we follow Demand Logic’s growth.
To send feedback, e-mail Samantha.McClary@egi.co.uk or tweet @Samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette
