Deal highlights

• The only enterprise plug load management system on the market
• Uses machine learning to optimize the delivery of energy to every single device in a building
• Leverages energy data to enhance asset management, safety, and space configuration
• Backed by BMW-MINI's Urban X, Urban Us Fund, Engage Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures, and Impact Assets

That 36% is plug load. Plug load is the energy consumed at each of the electrical outlets in a building. Miscellaneous devices are not managed or metered in any way but are responsible for 82% of plug load in commercial buildings.

Over the next ten years, plug load is predicted to reach nearly 45% of total building energy draw and surpass HVAC and lighting to make up the single largest portion of a building’s total energy consumption.

The final frontier for building efficiency

Until now, it has been impossible for businesses to audit, understand, and optimize the energy that is being delivered to all of the electrical sockets in their buildings. The result of that has been billions of dollars in waste, potential safety hazards, mounting environmental impacts, and a fundamental lack of understanding of the way that buildings consume a significant portion of their total energy.

HVAC and lighting have been the poster children for building optimization and commercial IoT because they have historically been the largest combined portion of waste. But the largest efficiency gains will come from the optimization and automation of power delivery to the individual sockets that power all of the thousands of devices in our buildings, from monitors to laptops, lamps, vending machines, and countless other mission-critical devices. Plug load is now the greatest single source of waste in commercial buildings, and Sapient is the only solution addressing that problem.

Sapient systems help save on more than just energy

Are there appliances in a building that cost thousands of dollars to run every year but that could be optimized to reduce costs? Should the leases on all of the printers, vending machines, and appliances be renewed each year, or only for those devices and appliances that are actually being used and are needed by the occupants of the building? How much is the business spending to power all of the laptops, space heaters, and monitors on a particular floor, region, or the building as a whole? By metering at every socket Sapient provides insights that allow companies answer all of these questions and many more in real-time.

Sapient helps commercial buildings understand, forecast, control, and automate the energy consumed at the plug. It allows you to filter by individual device types, rooms, floors, regions of a building, departments, or any combination of those parameters, in order to drive better decision-making and reduce waste, improving businesses’ bottom lines, preventing the disruption of mission-critical devices, identifying underutilized space, and improving safety.

As seen in

The Sapient plug load management system is sold B2B and consists of smart sockets run by a centralized, enterprise-level machine learning web application. The installation process is quick and easy, with no electrician or rewiring necessary.

Disaggregate power data to understand how power is being used 
Sapient enables you to select custom time intervals to analyze power draw by device type. Sapient allows you to view floor- and room-level energy usage breakdowns alongside costed occupancy metrics and trend analytics.

Apply rules to control plug load 
Sapient uses machine learning to generate rules that optimize power delivery to devices based on the behavior of the people in the building. In less than a few seconds after a device is plugged in, Sapient detects the type of device it is. Our algorithms then work to understand the behavioral patterns of the building’s occupants and generate rules that control power delivery and reduce waste. Sapient provides custom notification alerts for usage anomalies, potential safety hazards, KPI statuses, demand peaks, and savings generated.

Previous Investors

Sapient is venture-backed and has previously raised capital from strategic real estate angel investors, BMW-MINI's Urban-X, Urban Us Fund, and Engage Ventures.

There are over 1 million commercial office buildings in the U.S., with a combined footprint of over 16 billion square feet. Sapient’s business model prices deployments on the basis of building square footage which can be used to calculate the total addressable market for commercial office space in the US. This equates to a $130bn market opportunity.

In addition, commercial building floor space is expected to increase 39% over 2017 levels by 2050, indicating that the market opportunity will continue to grow.

The market that Sapient operates within is saturated with companies that focus on building-wide power, HVAC, or lighting. Sapient enjoys a first-mover advantage in the industry, as it is currently the only established, dedicated plug load management system on the market. Several companies focus on selling smart outlets in the smart home IoT space, but these solutions are not designed for large-scale deployments, building-wide management and analytics, or enterprise-level software controls. There are no other companies that address the problem of plug load for businesses. We consider B2C smart outlet and smart home companies to be potential partners for future integration into the Sapient product suite in order to supplement our options for commercial real estate.

Sam is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in applied physics with research interests in quantum computation and quantum information technology. His experience began in the field of nanotechnology and nanofabrication as a scientist at the Singh Center for Nanotechnology and extends to the field of quantum engineering and computation at the University of Pennsylvania's Quantum Engineering Laboratory as a former applied physics PhD student. While his education includes extensive work in mathematics and computer science, he now develops the core of Sapient's technology suite.

Sam is a Sophia International Scholar, Reagan Fellow, and a recipient of the UPenn Scholar grant. Recently, Sam has spoken at regional eco-engineering and sustainability initiative conferences to inspire his generation of engineers and innovators to collaborate in a unified effort to integrate previously disconnected fields of science into sustainable technology.

Martin attended The Wharton School of Business, having studied real estate and law. Prior to co-founding Sapient, Martin explored asset management, as well as real estate and criminal law. Early in his career, he rose to the position of General Manager at a financial institution, managing day-to-day operations, while also serving on the Board of Directors. During this time, he developed a passion for solving big problems in sustainability which eventually lead to his decision to focus exclusively on building Sapient.

Martin is an avid language learner with a lifelong passion for mountain climbing, having spent nearly a year at high-altitude in the Himalayas including on Mount Everest, Chhukung Ri, and Island Peak.

Steve is driven by unrelenting curiosity and the fun of creating new technologies.  His background in structural engineering led him to a twenty-year career building software systems focused on the virtualization of entire industries. Steve specializes in designing products built on BIM, CAD, GIS, IoT, and visualization technologies to address needs in the engineering, construction and operations lifecycle. Notable solutions he has delivered include web-based 2D and 3D asset management integrations that enabled data-driven exploration and reporting for floor plans and building systems.

Prior to Sapient, Steve established and oversaw the operations of a technology consulting division where he built and led a team of developers to meet the diverse needs of clients from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Steve is a lifelong learner who spends his free time listening to technology podcasts at the grocery, turning his old house into a smart home, and playing Minecraft with his kids.

Vipula is a graduate student of University of Pennsylvania in Computer Engineering. During her academic career, her focuses were Embedded Systems and Internet Of Things (IOT)- eventually delving into Analog and Digital Integrated Circuits during graduate school. Vipula has developed several end-to-end IOT products, while her current research involves parallel computing on Finite State Machines. 

Vipula started her journey at Sapient in 2017  designing and optimizing printed circuit boards for Sapient's proprietary smart outlet and oversaw the design and implementation of several embedded systems. Currently, she now manages the development of Machine Learning models and experimental algorithms for device detection and modeling human behavior.

Phillip is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania in computer engineering. He manages the embedded hardware and software subsystems responsible for tracking occupancy and human "hyper-location". His interests are in operating systems security, embedded software, and hardware/software interfaces.

He comes to Sapient with a background at Xilinx in hardware design, operating system development, and automation, as well as UI/UX design and iOS development. In his free time, he enjoys coffee, hiking, wine, and travel.

Sophia Yushchenko attended New York University Abu Dhabi, where she studied Economics, Psychology and History. In 2017, Sophia co-founded the NGO Connect Ukraine, which brings together social entrepreneurs and corporates, visionary innovators and creative artists, technologists, and ethical hackers from Ukraine and all over world to brainstorm ideas, develop prototypes and co-create projects able to define the future of Ukraine. She also co-founded the charity organization Children of the World to the Children of Ukraine to support children of Ukraine's fallen soldiers.

At Sapient, Sophia focuses on strategic business development and strategy as well as market and competitor analysis.

Paris is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, having studied neuroscience with coursework in the statistical and cognitive sciences. He has experience in the biotech space from both the equity and clinical sides, most recently designing and publishing mathematical models describing new surgical techniques in dermatology.

Paris is creating a library of literature from white papers to industry insight centered around the Sapient product.

Marketing and Business Development client engagement expert with over 25 years experience for architecture, planning, interior design and construction firms with a concentration on the college/university and corporate facilities markets.

Over the years, Rick has collaborated with firm principals and senior staff and implemented strategies to implement marketing and business development action plans to increase market share.

Dave has nearly 30 years of experience in business operations and program management and is a customer-focused leader in energy conservation and urban tech/smart cities. With diverse experience across private and public sectors, startups, and corporate environments, Dave has served as the program manager for Lockheed Martin and directed the largest commercial real estate energy efficiency outreach program in United States while at HR&A Advisors.

Dori is ranked at the top 5% of global workforce for Innovation and Leadership, and focuses on commercializing through innovation, business development, deal-making with strategic key technology partnerships. Dori has extensive experience working in fast-paced, early-stage, venture-backed entrepreneurial environments as well as established global multinationals.

Dori is a Techstars IoT Mentor and Alum, as well as a frequent speaker at key industry events such Mobile World Congress, CES, and NAB.

Claus has several decades of experience in the finance and business management sectors. He has worked in investment management, commodities trading and derivative sales, serving first as a Managing Director in the Commodity and Derivatives Sales Division at BNP Paribas and later as a Managing Director of the Commodity and Derivatives Division at Bank of America Merill Lynch. Claus has also advised several successful mining and technology start-ups.

Join us on the final frontier of building efficiency!