SensorFlow – Saving The Planet, One Hotel Room At A Time

SensorFlow Pte. Ltd. is a Singapore-based, prop-tech startup combining the use of smart wireless IoT solutions and AI to help buildings monitor, analyze and automate energy consumption for better productivity, sustainability, and energy efficiency and SensorFlow’s solution offers real-time data insights on energy consumption, occupancy trends, and guest behaviors. These can be used to enhance the overall guest experience at the room and create better management at the property and portfolio levels as building managers get prompt alerts on faulty equipment. Housekeeping routes can also be optimized in real-time based on room occupancy data.

SensorFlow’s retrofit solution, which comprises sensors and proprietary networks, are quick and easy to install in less than 5 minutes per room and with no operational disruptions.

Its Pay-As-You-Save model means there are no upfront costs. Alternative agreements can also be provided with a one-time upfront payment for increased savings over time.Hotels are expected to save up to 30 percent in total energy savings and up to 40 percent in maintenance costs.

Saikrishnan Ranganathan, CEO & Co-Founder along with Max Pagel, Co-Founder & CTO started SensorFlow in 2016. He met Max, at the Entrepreneur First program in Singapore. They had a common objective to improve user decision-making by creating a network of interconnected IoT devices that can share data.

They developed SensorFlow, in response to the pressing need for energy optimization worldwide and shared a vision of making smart buildings a reality – by retrofitting every building with their technology to automate decision-making and provide actionable insights from the data to improve energy and operational efficiency.

From this position, they recognized that hotels, residential and commercial buildings were among the biggest victims of poor energy efficiency. However, hotels in particular face large barriers to adopting existing solutions as many are limited to smaller operations expenditure budgets and available solutions are not only costly but also massively disruptive to install.

Therefore, Max and Saikrishnan initially developed a basic prototype which they trialed at a couple of hotels in Singapore and Indonesia. they soon realized that hotels make significant losses due to poor energy efficiency policies and that there was indeed a great need for their solution. That is why they decided to enter the hotel market as their first vertical when they set up SensorFlow.

“Currently, we focus on offering our solution to hotel buildings to help them become more energy-efficient and improve overall productivity and sustainability by using IoT, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data. We are expanding and deepening our presence across Southeast Asia based on the energy requirements of the hotel industry in different markets”. Said Saikrishnan

In late 2019, they signed sustainability deals worth S$3.8 million with hotels across Southeast Asia and have now signed on approximately 10,000 rooms across Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Hong Kong. They plan to expand into Europe, and North America in the second half of 2020. They plan to cover over 100,000 rooms by 2020 and reach their target of 800,000 rooms by 2022 across the region.

Soon they will be fundraising for their Series B round in Q3 of 2020 and Currently, they have already seen strong gross margins and are expected to hit break-even within the next 2 years. There are industry misconceptions that sustainable solutions are unaffordable. SensorFlow’s technology challenges this perception by making sustainability profitable, allowing any building to optimize their energy consumption and make a difference in a cost-effective manner.

“We have developed SensorFlow’s technology to be a full-stack IoT solution with our own proprietary wireless network, allowing us to retrofit our solution into any building with zero operational disruptions at no upfront cost. SensorFlow’s solutions have contributed to 30% to 50% savings on hotels’ air-conditioning costs, amounting to 10% to 30% of their total energy bills”. Said Saikrishnan

Ultimately, they need the industry to adopt more sustainable solutions. since hotels primarily facing three challenges that keep them from implementing energy management solutions: large upfront costs, time and cost of installation, and lack of vertical integration – SensorFlow’s solution solves these problems by providing a full suite of interconnected wireless sensors that are easy to install and manage, using a zero upfront cost, profit-sharing model.

Message From Co-Founders

Turning greener and cleaner is an opportunity for hotels to make a difference for their guests and the environment at large. SensorFlow envisions a future where all buildings can become energy efficient and participate more proactively in reducing their carbon footprint. As we grow and expand across countries and regions, we can confidently see the trends shifting towards conscious energy management, and we hope that more hotels can partner with us to bring about a positive impact on this planet.