Estonian cleantech R8 Technologies raised investment from the Japanese Panasonic Kurashi Visionary Fund
Estonian AI-powered solution for energy control in commercial buildings (shopping centers, offices, and hotels) R8 Technologies raised investment from Japanese corporate VC Panasonic Kurashi Visionary Fund.
UPD: Luxembourg-based energy (power, gas, renewables) company Encevo and Norwegian real estate company Møller Eiendom, which works on minimizing unnecessary energy consumption, emissions, and energy losses in the premises, were co-leading investors in this round. R8technologies will use the investment to expand into international markets and develop AI-powered software solutions.
Established in Tallinn in 2017 by Siim Täkker, R8 Technologies developed a technical assistant R8 Digital Operator Jenny for optimizing commercial buildings' energy consumption. R8 Digital Operator Jenny controls and adjusts the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) settings to optimize indoor comfort levels. The operator calculates and adjusts the HVAC system setpoints every 15 minutes during 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The startup’s solution helps analyze and adjust building management systems (BMS) already used in commercial real estate and, as a result, keeps optimal indoor climate for every room and area. In addition, customers get updates about energy efficiency adjustments, tasks, and results via monthly reports and a real-time User Interface.
According to R8 Technologies, its software leads to energy savings, CO2 emission reduction, and buildings' HVAC systems' life span prolongation. R8 Technologies also designed a data-driven automated analytics R8 Diagnostics to detect HVAC systems faults and anomalies that are invisible to automation systems or technical teams. This solution provides an overview of the building’s room temperatures, automation, heating, cooling, ventilation, condition of the air conditioning systems, and a list of improvements. The detected faults are submitted automatically to the technician with relevant competence.
R8 Technologies' operator controls over 3M sqm of space of commercial buildings across Europe, including all the Baltic countries.
