With the aim to improve air quality and create healthier indoor spaces, Clairify, has just picked up €565k of fresh funding. The capital injection was led by Rockstart (via its €27 million energy fund), with Oost NL participating.
It’s estimated that people spend about 90% of their time indoors, and there’s no doubt to the impact that indoor air quality has on our health. The pandemic boosted our focus on this and made us all become more aware of air quality and its impact on building occupant health and well-being in the workplace. As a result, healthy and smart buildings have become the new standard in commercial real estate. Further, upcoming ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) standards such as the European Commission’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) also include reporting on a healthy, data-driven and adaptive environment in the workspace – air quality control is now an essential consideration.
Clairify, founded in 2018 by Felix van den Horst, Tibor Casteleijn, and Wim Kamerma, is aiming to become the global leader in indoor air quality data, analytics and reporting, addressing a universal need. The startup creates smart software combined with indoor air quality sensors to support the transition towards healthy indoor spaces. Throughout 2021, the company grew exponentially as Covid-19 has further accelerated the demand for healthy buildings.
Max ter Horst, Managing Partner Energy, Rockstart commented: “Better air quality management in office buildings results in lower energy consumption, but also improves employee productivity and reduces Covid-19 infection risks. Clairify is addressing this large opportunity with a unique analytics product and a young and professional team. Their market traction is impressive, with international real estate companies and large corporations lining up to become their customers.”
Based in Enschede, the Dutch company builds next-generation software and indoor air quality sensors that transform the management of indoor air quality and thermal comfort in buildings, so people can work in a healthy and productive environment. Leading companies such as the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm, CBRE, iconic buildings like the A’DAM Tower, and the University of Amsterdam use Clairify’s data to create healthy workspaces.
Clairify’s proposition fits the current development, where real estate investors look beyond just energy management and more into sustainability and well-being. Beyond just Covid-19, air quality will remain a centre topic on the agenda for real estate investors. Sander Paul van Tongeren, the co-founder and former CEO of GRESB, the leading benchmark for real assets, is an advisor of Clairify and one of the investors in this round.
He said: “For implementing ESG, it took the real estate sector 10 years to collect, analyse and report on the environmental data (the ‘E’ of environmental). Now, the focus changes towards what matters most to real estate users and tenants (the ‘S’ of social goals). Indoor air quality is a cornerstone for the Social goals and Clairify helps companies with collecting, analysing and reporting on this important subject.”
The fresh capital allows the team to attract key hires to accelerate marketing and sales, improve customer support and product scalability. Clairify also intends to go international and close its first foreign deals this year.
Jacob Issa, investment manager Tech at Oost NL added: “Clairify has a convincing mission and visionary founders. They identified the air quality problems in office buildings early on and developed a high-quality solution by combining hardware and software so real estate managers gain insight into indoor air quality and can take necessary actions and offer healthy spaces to their tenants. As a promising startup, Clairify is a great addition to the tech-ecosystem in our region.”
