Giordano (Enerbrain): “With our sensors you can cut your bills by up to 30-40%”
A new 10 million euro round of financing to support new investments in technology and human resources. It is the goal of Enerbrainthe Turin-based company born in 2015 that has developed an innovative solution software e hardware which manages and controls non-residential buildings in an automated and intelligent way, to contribute to the energy savingto the abatement of emissions of CO2to improve indoor air quality. Enerbrain is expanding abroad and has obtained over 20 international awards including the 2020 National Innovation Award promoted by the President of the Republic and the one dedicated to Rolando Polli, promoted by Ambienta Sgr and McKinsey.
“The goal now is to build further collaborations with local and global market players, and bring our solution to more and more public and private realities. Enerbrain wants to be the protagonist of the energy transition of companies and cities, not only in Italy. It is a topic of great importance in this historical moment ”, he says to Truth and Business the CEO of Enerbrain Joseph Giordano.
So what is your role?
“We put more intelligence into energy management in non-residential buildings. We do not consider private houses and condominiums because they would be too complex to manage. In practice, we carry out an optimization of consumption which, in the simplest possible way, integrates with existing systems. For this reason, after an initial consultation to understand the customer’s needs, we place environmental sensors to start energy and air quality monitoring. Then the data is processed in the cloud from which we obtain analytics and, subsequently, optimization logics that regulate consumption and temperature, and correct the problems”.
What do Enerbrain customers ask for?
“We try to combine comfort needs with those related to cutting consumption and CO2 and therefore costs. Usually, the customer asks us to lower energy costs and the CO2 footprint, and to minimize the impact of employee complaints due to thermal imbalances within the rooms”.
You have public and private clients. Are there any differences?
“As far as schools and public buildings are concerned, there are legal requirements which set the internal temperature at 20 degrees, and with our system we are able to guarantee that they are maintained with the least expenditure of energy. In the private sector, we set up the system based on the specific needs of the customer and if there are any anomalies, they are detected in real time and corrected. For this reason, another of our goals is the digitization of systems management”.
How much can you save with your service?
“We work with direct clients from the industrial and retail world, but also with facility management groups. We intervene when a saving of at least 10% is possible, otherwise we don’t do it, but with our systems, bill savings of up to 30-40% can be achieved”.
Besides the Italian market, in which ones are you present?
“Right from the start we had the ambition to go outside Italy and as a startup we won some awards that allowed us to operate and make ourselves known abroad. After Italy, our most important market is France, but we are also present in Portugal, Poland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, while this year we started our first activities in China, Mexico and the United States thanks to a customer of the automotive industry which is developing an important decarbonisation plan. However, we see the best opportunities in Europe, where customers are highly motivated and have budgets to spend and precise targets to reach. Furthermore, in order to continue growing, we want to create a network of partners to expand our geographical perimeter, affiliating consultants who will become our resellers”.
What goals do you have in terms of turnover?
“In 2022, faced with bills that even tripled, some customers froze their investments, especially in the third quarter, while this year we restarted with record orders. On our part, however, there has been no step backwards, on the contrary we have increased investments and in 2023 we aim to reach 10 million euros in revenues”.
To grow you need resources…
“We have already raised around €6.5m in the previous two rounds and are now looking for another €10m to grow. We are seeing interest from investors, although the market is difficult at the moment, but our sector is very hot and because of this we want to expand. Our goals are to create new tools, make the technology evolve and strengthen the commercial and operational team. We need specialized figures that we are struggling to find, but our goal is to reach 10 million euros in revenues, a goal that no company in our sector has yet reached”.