In August 2017, Sustainable Buildings secured €250.000 of seed investment from a Dutch Angel Investor. This private investor decided to put his trust in Sustainable Buildings, a startup company conceived at the University of Groningen. According to the Dutch Angel Investor, based on his expertise and experience, Sustainable Buildings’ innovative technology to make buildings smart will bring a radical change in the sustainability business.
Last year, Sustainable Buildings received a crowdfunding investment of €133.120 from 153 investors from all over the world. This funding was used to complete a software development team, make advanced monitoring services market ready, as well as to start up marketing and sales processes.
Connecting Municipalities
This time, with the €250.000 seed investment, Sustainable Buildings plans to connect all forward-thinking Dutch municipalities and other environment-friendly organizations to the SB Energy Management System. Connecting municipalities together will create a joint platform that makes their progress and work on energy efficiency more visible to the public. The SB platform also enables the energy efficiency teams from the municipalities to share implemented good practices about energy saving measures. As a result, municipalities will be able to save at least 10-15% of the energy used in their buildings. In this way, Sustainable Buildings help municipalities accelerate the transition to energy neutrality.
"With our software and services, we help municipalities track their progress on the road to energy neutrality,” says Dr. Faris Nizamic, CEO of Sustainable Buildings. He also emphasizes that most of Dutch municipalities have very ambitious energy and carbon neutrality goals, so in order to reach their goals on time, they need a proper support. “We also help municipalities smartly choose appropriate actions by using real data and good practices that will ensure they achieve the set sustainability goals."
Ambitious Expansion
The cloud-based Energy Management System from Sustainable Buildings is unique in the sense that it integrates in real-time many data sources, such as electricity and gas consumption, electricity production from solar panels, as well as other indoor environment parameters like user presence, temperature, humidity, light levels, and air quality. "That way, we get the total picture on what is happening in buildings, at any moment," says Dr. Tuan Anh Nguyen, COO of Sustainable Buildings. He adds that "Our system can detect and monitor the heartbeat of any building, and in that way, knowing how it's performing, as well as what could be optimized. For example, we can even identify in which room the heating may be decreased by say 30%, or in which room the windows should be closed to avoid unnecessary heat loss."
When asked about the highest priorities in the coming period, both directors agree that the addition of new talents to the business development team is going to be of highest priority to match the ambitious expansion goals of Sustainable Buildings. Dr. Nizamic is optimistic: “Until now we have been very fortunate in attracting talented young people to our team. Our cause to develop a more sustainable future using cutting-edge technology is highly compelling, and a sure breeding ground for ambitious and talented professionals who want to be part of this green revolution.”
About Sustainable Buildings
Sustainable Buildings B.V. is a young award-winning software company from Groningen, The Netherlands. Sustainable Buildings provides a game-changing building energy management system for public and commercial buildings. The Mission of Sustainable Buildings is to provide buildings with an innovative and affordable cloud-based energy management system to accelerate their transition to sustainability. At the moment, the SB Energy Management System is used by a number of buildings at University of Groningen, Municipality of Groningen, and currently being installed to more municipalities and other environmentally-friendly organizations.