Problem addressed

Today, about 20% of total global GHG emissions originate from buildings. In addition, real estate accounts for over 40% of annual global energy usage where 30% of it is usually wasted, and 45% is associated with a building’s HVAC system. BrainBox AI addresses the need to optimize HVAC systems to perform more efficiently, effectively reducing up to 25% in energy consumption and up to 40% in carbon footprint, among many other benefits.

Overview of start-up

BrainBox AI is a fully autonomous artificial intelligence-powered HVAC optimization solution for commercial buildings. Since May 2019, the solution has been globally adopted in over 17 countries and 380 spaces along with an additional 130+ committed buildings. The solution is connected to a building’s HVAC system where it maps the system and applies industry standard tagging to the equipment. Once the data is normalized, the AI-powered solution begins to learn the thermal behaviour and integrate external data (weather predictions, utility tariff structures). With this knowledge BrainBox AI can predict with up to 99.6% accuracy the future state of each zone in the building. It then begins to make adjustments every 5-minutes by sending guidelines to individual pieces of equipment, reducing their runtime. This in turn allows for up to 25% savings in HVAC energy, up to 40% reduction in carbon footprint, an improvement of up to 60% in occupant comfort, and an extension in equipment life of up to 50%.

What makes the start-up innovative

A first-mover in the HVAC optimization industry, BrainBox AI offers a disruptive innovation. With a key value being to solve big problems and another one being that it does not cut corners, and is committed to creating something impactful the right way. BrainBox AI has navigated unexplored territory, applying the most advanced artificial intelligence and models to buildings making them fully autonomous and pre-emptive.

Strategic partnerships with research partners have allowed BrainBox AI to push innovation to the next level. It has multiple research partnerships with numerous Canadian universities including, but not limited to, McGill, Concordia, ETS (École de Technologie Supérieure), Sherbrooke University, and Polytechnique Montreal. BrainBox AI has also received support from National Research Canada through their Industrial Research Applied Program. It is also part of an international consortium called BENTRADE under the EU based EUREKA research program and part of the ITEA 4 cohort. Additional partnerships have been made with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), IVADO labs, Mila, and the Quebec AI Institute.

How the start-up has been designed to scale up quickly

The SaaS solution allows for adoption in all areas of the world with no capital-intensive requirements. The remote and rapid implementation of the solution allows for fast scalability. BrainBox AI’s system architecture also permits for connection with the vast majority of building management systems (BMS) creating opportunity for the greatest impact possible. The global team also helps in the scalability and customer-centric approach for this innovation.