Startup uses AI, IoT to improve building efficiency

Facilio is a facilities optimisation platform that drives real-time operational efficiency.

Up until now, building owners haven't had the technology to handle multiple aspects of managing a building such as dealing with facility management vendors, equipment breakdowns and aligning tenant requests with facilities strategies. Facilio - headquartered in Atlanta with operations in Chennai - is a facilities optimisation platform that harnesses IoT and AI to drive real-time operational efficiency across real estate portfolios.

The platform offers an all-in-one software suite to help facilities centrally manage maintenance, operations, sustainability and tenant experience in one place.

Facilio claims to be the world's first facilities optimisation software that harnesses IoT and AI to leverage existing automation data and provide a superior facilities experience. It is built from the ground up, keeping in mind property owners and facility managers and to help them achieve real-time operational efficiency and sustainability across dispersed real estate portfolios.

"We started UAE operations from a very early stage of market outreach, beginning in late 2017. We worked closely with some very large customers in the region from our early stage. We now have customers in domains ranging from smart cities, airlines, commercial real estate, etc.," said Prabhu Ramachandran, founder and chief executive officer, Facilio.

The venture is a seed-stage business backed by Accel and raised a funding over $1 million in its first round. "We started with the idea of Facilio in early 2017, and within our first round of presenting the concept to Accel, we secured the funding required. This was the result of a planned and well-researched approach that indicated a sizeable industry potential as well as a growing niche and need for our solution. Globally, facilities services spend stands at close to over $1 trillion today and the energy spend is also close to the same," said Ramachandran.

A recent analysis report by Verdantix, a leading global research consultancy specialising in energy, real estate, facilities and maintenance, estimates that the global market for software and related IT services in buildings is currently at $8 billion and expected to reach $12 billion by 2022.

So, how is Facilio different from its peers in the UAE? Facilio removes the operational silos that building owners and operators struggle with and instead provides a unified solution that combines efficient management of people, assets, sustainability and the tenant experience. And this portfolio-wide visibility allows building owners/operators as well as property and FM heads to be in the driver's seat, driving efficiency from a predictive standpoint versus a reactionary or preventive one.

Most IoT solutions in the market today come bundled with a proprietary set of sensors that only adds to an already disparate and siloed environment. Plus, they add an extra hardware layer to already hardware-centric systems and further increase complexity and the substantial cost of management and ownership.

Ramachandran explains that Facilio is a software-driven solution that rationalises the asset-intensive building ecosystem and reduces functional complexity. It seamlessly integrates with existing building systems and improves efficiency through centralised and real-time facilities optimisation.

Additionally, Facilio does not require uprooting existing infrastructure nor does it require the addition of new hardware, making it a cost and time-effective solution. It focuses on real-time data collation and analysis of data, enabling actionable insights. It delivers continuous and predictive management of operations and condition-based performance through the means of an IoT and AI-enabled solution - scalable across a portfolio of buildings.

Shekhar Kirani, managing partner, Accel, said: "We always believe in backing teams that solve global business challenges with great passion and a vision to succeed. What convinced us of Facilio's potential was the shared belief of the highly experienced founding team in the power of technology to create a positive impact in the built environment. We are very positive that Facilio will create a new market for facility experiences and set higher benchmarks for building lifecycle services and the industry as a  whole."

Banking on the optimisim, Shivaraj Selvanathan, engineering manager, Facilio, said: "I know that approaching the large and traditional market with a tech-driven solution is the natural evolution of facilities and building management. IoT and AI are interesting and innovative technologies that can create value for global customers. And Facilio has thoroughly understood this gap and the need in the market today, and the team's vision aligns well with the next wave of building innovation.

"The strength of the founding team and their commitment to this vision was a big inspiration and a key factor to attract me to work for the company. I said yes instantly when I was reached out to and joined the team from day one. It has been a great journey so far and with a growing global customer base and a lot more products in the pipeline, I am looking forward to an even more exciting time ahead."

- sandhya@khaleejtimes.com

Sandhya D'Mello

sandhya@khaleejtimes.com