Nearly 6 million real estate owners and operators lack insight into the amount of energy used in large commercial and industrial buildings across the country. Since 2013, D.C.-based startup Aquicore has provided solutions to easily retrieve information, reducing utility-related costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
Instead of relying on utility meters that are often disconnected and hidden in basements, Aquicore’s clients use online, real time data to see how buildings are utilizing energy, water and gas resources.
“It’s a pretty simple system to use,” says Aquicore founder and CEO Logan Soya.
“One of my customers said that he could use it just after an hour of seeing it, so we really try to make it easy and functional.”
The solution has been deployed in over 500 buildings across the country—several hundred in D.C.—with much success. “Very often, we have case studies where within our first 30 days, we’ve been able to identify $120,000 - $150,000 worth of annual savings—a lot of that is attributed to just running your building more intelligently and being able to turn off things at the right time,” says Soya.
Savings come in other ways, as well. “We had a case study where one customer realized that the utility bill was inaccurate by about $7k a year for ten years,” says Soya.
Another client discovered a leak in a building’s cooling tower, “so we were able to avoid a very big disaster,” he continued.
If every building in the country operated on Aquicore’s solution, Soya estimates a collective savings of $40 billion annually. Further, there would be a cut of nearly 30 percent in unnecessary energy consumption.
By and large, this type of technology is still fairly new, says Soya, so education is key. With the company’s latest investment of $3.1 million, led by global startup incubator and seed fund 1776, Soya hopes to build the company’s credibility and presence in the marketplace “so hopefully we'll be able to make our name a brand more recognized as a leader for the success that we already had and the success that we have to come.”
Soon, the company is expanding to the west coast and is currently hiring developers, sales persons and marketers. “I think Aquicore is a pretty cool place that has a lot of great opportunities over the next couple years,” says Soya.
Christina Sturdivant is a native Washingtonian who's always watching and writing about the latest cultural, community and innovative trends in the city. She's interested in people and companies that create equitable opportunities for longtime residents and transplants alike.