Estonian start-up Bisly has closed a €3.6m fundraising round to improve the energy efficiency of buildings.

The Tallinn-based start-up works with commercial and residential properties and is deploying projects in cooperation with over 25 real-estate developers and funds. The funding will be used to capture a fast-growing market by widening and deepening Bisly’s market engagement in Europe, with an emphasis on the Nordics, Dach region and the UK.

The aim is to make buildings more efficient by integrating and optimising individual smart controllers for functions such as HVAC, lighting and security in a single platform. The global intelligent building market is estimated at $86bn, growing at 11.4% CAGR, and expected to reach $148bn by 2027. This growth is being driven by factors such as high energy costs and ESG compliance.

With the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, the EU’s energy performance of buildings directive (EPBD) mandates major efficiency improvements in how all buildings use energy for things such as heating, cooling, lighting and hot water. According to the EU, 75% of current building stock in the bloc does not meet the required new standards.

With a demanding legislative timetable in place, the search is on for economic ways to construct and retrofit buildings with the technological intelligence to reduce energy consumption. Bisly is making waves in a market dominated by legacy options that cannot meet the demands of most real-world budgets. Bisly’s open-standard technology offers a reduction in total project costs with specially-developed sensors that install quickly, together with a simple and secure software platform that uses bank-grade encryption.

By combining all aspects of intelligent buildings – manufacturing, installation, building management software and digital twin infrastructure – into one platform, Bisly can reduce acquisition costs to the point of near parity with conventional construction and management practices, while reducing installation and running costs. Bisly offers either a nominal SaaS fee combined with a one-off installation buyout fee for residential projects, or a slightly higher monthly SaaS fee and no up-front costs for commercial projects. In its founding market of Estonia, Bisly has captured over 25% of the total market there in less than five years.

“With our unified intelligent building platform, Bisly is simplifying a very complex industry that is addressing the even more complex problem of climate change,” said Bisly (www.bisly.com) CEO Siim Vips. “People are just becoming familiar with the concept of smart homes or smart buildings, and intelligent buildings go even a step beyond that. We are driven by a high degree of urgency and by the fact that our solution will get more buildings into sustainable operations in less time and less money than any other solution on the market.”

The round was led by Aconterra with support from Second Century Ventures and Reach UK, SmartCap Green Fund and Pinorena Capital, as well as several angel investors.

“Aconterra’s dedicated commitment to enhancing building efficiency, safety, health and comfort aligns seamlessly with Bisly’s innovations,” said Ron Schuermans, founding partner at Aconterra. “With a proven record of delivering high-quality products and a smooth onboarding process across Estonia and neighbouring regions, Bisly has established itself as a reliable player. Aconterra looks forward to actively supporting Bisly in its global expansion.”

Tyler Thompson, managing partner of Second Century Ventures and Reach Global, added: “We are extremely proud to support Bisly and witness their successful participation in the Reach UK 2023 tech scale-up programme. Intelligent building technology holds immense potential for global growth as economies worldwide are striving to achieve net-zero goals.”

And Sille Pettai, board member at SmartCap, said: “SmartCap Green Fund’s main objective is to support early-stage green technology companies, whose product or service is directly contributing to meeting the climate goals.Estonian technology company Bisly has already established itself as an innovator in smart buildings both in Estonia and on international markets, making a clear contribution to reducing the carbon footprint in real-estate segment and thus contributing to climate change mitigation.”