Singapore-based startup, SensorFlow has raised USD 8.3 million in Series A+ funding, led by Openspace Ventures and Gaw Capital Partners, to advance its solutions and for international expansion into new markets.
SensorFlow offers hoteliers a smart solution to monitor, analyse and automate energy consumption for better productivity, sustainability and energy efficiency.
Founded in 2016, SensorFlow combines Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create solutions. Funding will be used to develop the company’s smart building management solution for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system, for automating systems to hire new talent in hardware and data science roles and for innovations that help hotels manage COVID-19.
“For the hospitality sector, the need for optimising energy and operational efficiency is especially pertinent now as it works on recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. Our technology can help hotels and properties maximise the use of limited resources, adopt clean technologies, and become more sustainable. SensorFlow’s solutions can thus help clients save costs in the longer term and bounce back faster from the pandemic’s economic effects,” said Saikrishnan Ranganathan, CEO and Co-Founder of SensorFlow.
Openspace Ventures invests in early-stage technology companies in Southeast Asia while Gaw Capital Partners does so in global real estate markets.
“We are committed to supporting startups that develop innovative technologies to transform the way we operate,” said Gervin Yang, VP Investments at Openspace Ventures.
Christina Gaw, Managing Principal and Head of Capital Markets of Gaw Capital Partners, said, “Gaw Capital Partners is always looking at innovative technologies that will shape the future of real estate. We are excited by the versatile solution offered and developed by SensorFlow, which will enable better operational productivity and more efficient resource deployment. We foresee big commercial real estate owners and hotel operators integrating smart building solutions in a not-too-distant future.”
Other prominent investors who featured in this round were Aurum Investments – a proptech focused venture capital fund, and Pierre Lorinet – a finance sector veteran.
This is the second round of Series A funding raised by SensorFlow following the one in February 2019. Pierre Lorinet had led the first round, with participation from Cocoon Capital and Playfair Capital.
“In the past year, we have seen a significant increase in the number of hotels partnering with us across Southeast Asia to achieve better efficiency and sustainability. This is highly encouraging and places us in a much stronger position to develop our solution further to meet demand in new key markets such as Japan, Australia, Europe and the US. Through our smart automation solution, we want to make advanced sustainability technologies the new standard in the global hospitality industry,” added Ranganathan.
SensorFlow’s ambition is to place its solutions in over 100,000 rooms by 2020 with a target of a million rooms by 2023 across the region.
To date, SensorFlow has been signed on by about 10,000 hotel rooms across Southeast Asia, and recorded a 1,000 percent increase in hotel room installations since 2019.