Utrecht-based Sensorfact is a company that offers an Intelligent Energy Management System (IEMS) to help industrial companies reduce their energy consumption. In a recent development, it has raised €3.7M in its Series A round of funding.
The round saw participation from Korys, the investment holding company of the Colruyt family; venture capital fund FORWARD.one, a current major shareholder; and EIT InnoEnergy.
The company had last raised funding in 2019 of €1.25m from Forward.one.
Use of the funds
With the raised capital, the company aims to further invest in the development of its energy efficiency platform for the industry and further expand across Europe. The funding will also allow the company to continue its growth in Benelux and Italy and launch its activities in the Nordics, Austria, and Switzerland.
“We are really happy with this powerful consortium of investors as this will allow us to turn our growth plans into reality. Our ambition is to become the number one industrial energy management provider, targeting 370K SME industrial companies in Europe. Together we are making a difference in scaling up this impactful technology”, says Pieter Broekema, CEO & Founder of Sensorfact.
A plug-and-play energy management system
Founded in 2016 by Massimo Coduti, Pieter Broekema, and Sjoerd Sloterdijk, Sensorfact offers an Intelligent Energy Management System (IEMS) to provide an easy and affordable solution for industrial SMEs to reduce their energy consumption.
Pieter Broekema says, “Energy bills are counted among the top highest operational expenses faced by industrial SMEs. Also, European legislation is pushing industries to improve their energy efficiency. We experience that especially SMEs face challenges to comply with government regulations and often lack the machine-level consumption data and analytics to identify savings opportunities.”
The platform offers wireless, non-invasive energy sensors that are easy to install. The company’s web-based analytics platform gives real-time insights into energy usage on a machine-level. The company’s smart algorithms detect energy anomalies and other energy-saving opportunities that are presented in a tailor-made report. It claims that, on average, its users save between 5-10 per cent on their energy bill.
In the last five years, the company has grown its customer base to more than 350 customers in over 14 countries and serves in the sectors including plastics, food & beverages, and metal industry “as their energy consumption is the highest among all industrial branches,” says Pieter Broekema.
Besides, the company also heavily invested in optimising its software platform, developing new algorithms, and offering new solutions to make energy-saving easy for its customers.
EU aims to eliminate industrial energy waste
Putting energy efficiency first is a key objective of the EU, as energy savings are the easiest way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By 2030, the EU has targeted to reach an energy efficiency of 32.5 per cent. Its other two key targets include at least 40 per cent cuts in greenhouse gas emissions (from 1990 levels) and a 32 per cent share for renewable energy by 2030.
Pieter Broekema says, “To realise energy savings, it is important to increase insight into the company’s energy use. The first step to take is to install energy sensors to get data on your machine-level energy consumption. The data can be used to benchmark the machines, monitor the energy flows, and create an energy balance.”
Besides offering machine-level energy data, Sensorfact also developed industry-specific algorithms to identify energy-saving opportunities, “The data is analysed with the help of AI tools and industry-specialised algorithms, enhanced by the industrial knowledge of Sensorfact energy consultants. This way, we can offer the industry a complete solution to bring down their energy use,” the company said in a statement.
To date, Sensorfact has identified 54GWh of energy savings.