Utah-based autonomous building company PassiveLogic has secured $34m in series B funding.

Founded by entrepreneurs Troy Harvey and Jeremy Fillingim in 2016, PassiveLogic is redefining autonomous systems technology with the vision of empowering anyone to design their own custom applications without requiring a team of PhDs.

“Buildings are the world’s most complex systems, a problem that increases as buildings become smart,” said Harvey. “We’ve built a platform that tames increasing complexity and addresses the growing technology needs of the built environment. At PassiveLogic, our core focus is to redefine how people participate in the design, build, operation and maintenance of complex systems.”

The company has developed a product ecosystem that enables autonomous systems from development to deployment. Its software environment, Autonomy Studio, allows users to build models by simply drawing. The software then generates a physics-based digital twin, in a description language called Quantum. These applications deploy within PassiveLogic’s control hardware, the Hive, a scalable automation platform.

Investors Addition and Keyframe were joined by commercial real estate strategics, including RET Ventures, Brookfield Growth and Era Ventures from the USA, and Europe’s proptech VC firm A/O PropTech.

“PassiveLogic’s platform has unique capabilities to generate a digital twin of a building and utilise new autonomous technologies, machine learning and easily configurable software to help streamline the implementation and management of building controls systems,” said Todd Arfman of Addition. “We’re thrilled to double down and continue our investment in PassiveLogic to modernise today’s building infrastructure and connectivity.”

A successor to traditional deep learning, Quantum provides virtual analogues to real-world objects, powered by the company’s physics-based artificial intelligence technology. This enables real-world objects to understand their behaviour and interactions and learn in place while operating in real time.

The autonomous suite is built around the Hive controller, enabling connectivity to building systems. Hive controllers work together within a building to provide an edge platform for sensors, equipment and IoT, allowing whole-building control without requiring cloud connectivity. In recent pilot projects, PassiveLogic’s approach demonstrated 30 per cent energy savings and 90 per cent labour savings in programming, installation and commissioning compared with conventional methods.

The products understand how a building’s equipment and systems interact, allowing processing times to be slashed from many days to a few minutes. This functionality allows local in-building AI to make real-time control and management decisions that co-optimise comfort, maintenance, efficiency and operational costs.

“The version of machine learning in today’s building automation applications lack effective data controls,” said Benjamin Birnbaum, partner at Keyframe. “With PassiveLogic, we finally have the opportunity to leverage more powerful technology to make an impact in the building market, which accounts for 39 per cent of the world’s CO₂ emissions. We are excited to be a part of this funding round to bring a first of its kind to the building sector, one that has been starved of innovation far too long.”

The platform scales to any building or campus, both in new and retrofit applications, including specialised applications in factories, hospitals, data centres and more. PassiveLogic has a growing roster of partnerships with many industry stakeholders, including building owners, operators, architects, engineers, contractors and utility partners. Beyond autonomous operation and management, the platform paves the way for human-centric architecture, interactive energy networks, utility demand-response and the future of smart cities.