BrainBox AI raises $8.59 million

It was announced today in a company press release that BrainBox AI has successfully raised $8.59 million (CAD $12 million) to drive its global growth of autonomous building technology, particularly in the regions of Australia, Ireland, North America, and the U.K.

The oversubscribed round is comprised of domestic and international investors with Esplanade Capital as the lead investor in the funding round.

BrainBox AI was founded in 2017 by Sean Neely (CEO) and Jean-Simon Venne (CTO) with its headquarters in Montreal, Canada. The company currently employs 50 people and, thanks to the funding, expects to have 100 people on their team by 2020 year-end.

BrainBox AI uses artificial intelligence to reduce real estate and commercial property owners energy costs by up to 25% and improve their impact on climate change.

Sam Ramadori, Chief Business Development Officer, BrainBox AI expressed his excitement on the successful round by saying: “BrainBox AI’s truly autonomous solution is re-defining how we manage energy in buildings thanks to cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology. As a company, we are driven by the opportunity to tackle climate change, one of the world’s critical challenges, and are excited to be working with investors who share the same vision,”

Since launching its service to market in May 2019, BrainBox AI has installed its self-learning technology in over 15 million square feet of commercial properties, across 15 cities, over 3 continents.

This successful funding round brings BrainBox AI’s total capital raised to over $13.6 million (CAD $19 million).

Jeffrey Kadanoff, Managing Director, Esplanade Ventures shared the same excitement as Sam by saying: “We are excited to be a part of the team bringing BrainBox AI’s energy-saving solutions to market. The building operators we spoke with were thrilled with the significant cost savings, which required no capex and minimal disruption to achieve,”.

Luc Ménard, Chief Operating Officer, Desjardins Capital said: “Desjardins Capital is proud to be a part of BrainBox AI’s growth. It’s impressive to see a Montreal start-up with an international vision for tackling a global issue like climate change… The way they’re using AI to efficiently manage energy use in buildings could be a game-changer in a huge market.”

Due to the more likely recession or depression on the horizon from the COVID-19 pandemic, this successful funding comes for BrainBox AI at a time of growing interest in scalable technologies that can decrease any type of cost due to the sharp decline in global economies.

BrainBox AI is not the only business to receive funding during the Coronavirus saga with Adverity, Blue Prism, and H1 Insights all proving successful in funding rounds, all of which host cost reduction capabilities.