People spend 90 percent of their time indoors, and indoor air quality has a tremendous impact on our health. The pandemic boosted the focus on indoor air quality regarding its impact on building occupant health and well-being in the workplace. Healthy and smart buildings become the new standard in commercial real estate. 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. Clairify aims to become the global leader in indoor air quality data, analytics, and reporting. Therefore, the startup creates smart software combined with indoor air quality sensors to support the transition toward healthy indoor spaces. Throughout 2021, the company grew exponentially as Covid-19 has further accelerated the demand for healthy buildings.
“We were fortunate to be able to choose our investors for this round. The support from Rockstart and Oost NL stood out, focusing strongly on both team development and growth capital for both this round and future ones,” says Felix van den Horst, CEO & Co-Founder Clairify.
Impressed with the team and the traction
Rockstart, global early stage investor, led the round via its €27+m Energy fund targeting startups that drive the energy transition forward. Rockstart’s Energy 2022 program has started this month and Clairify is one of the startups participating.
“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,” says Max ter Horst, Managing Partner Energy, Rockstart.
The next wave of building management will be about Sustainability and Well-being
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.
“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,” says Sander Paul van Tongeren.
Keeping the tech development home
Clairify has its roots in Enschede, where it started the development of its indoor air quality sensors. It has made a strategic choice to stay close to its Alma Mater, where they can recruit skilled technology specialists and the high-tech industry suppliers are close by. In Oost NL it found a great local partner with aligned interests.
“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 in the indoor air quality and can take necessary actions and offer healthy spaces to their tenants. As a promising start-up Clairify is a great addition to the tech-ecosystem in our region,” says Jacob Issa, investment manager Tech at Oost NL.
Expanding from a solid client base
In a short timeframe, Clairify established a solid client base in the Netherlands, with clients such as the A’DAM Tower, Medics without Borders, and the University of Amsterdam. Clairify also partnered with CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm. As there is interest from abroad, Clairify intends to close its first foreign deals this year.
About Clairify
The founders Felix van den Horst, Tibor Casteleijn, and Wim Kamerman envisioned the importance of healthy spaces long before the pandemic. Founded in 2018, the team 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.
About Rockstart
Rockstart is an early stage investor that empowers purpose-driven founders across three domains: Energy, AgriFood and Emerging Technologies. Rockstart invests in early-stage startups and provides access to capital, market, and expertise by connecting founders with co-investors, mentors, partners, corporates and the wider Rockstart network.
Rockstart has invested in more than 260 startups and its alumni value to date is more than $1bn. Rockstart is an international team of 40+ professionals dedicated to empowering purpose-driven founders to become scalable and drive positive change on a global scale. Rockstart has notable exits such as Wercker, Bouw7, iClinic, and in 2021, 3D Hubs and Brincr. The company has offices in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Copenhagen, Denmark and Bogota, Colombia.
About Oost NL
Oost NL is the development agency of the eastern part of the Netherlands. Commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the provinces of Overijssel and Gelderland, we strengthen the regional economy. We let entrepreneurs innovate, invest and internationalize to accelerate their growth. Oost NL guides entrepreneurs to the most appropriate form of financing. In addition, we make our network, knowledge and expertise available to entrepreneurs in Food, Tech, Health and Energy. Because Oost NL invests with public money, social return is of great importance. In this way we contribute to the achievement of regional, economic, sustainability and employment goals.