There are over 5.6 million small commercial buildings like gas stations, restaurants, etc., making up 94% of the commercial buildings in the US. Small commercial HVAC is projected to generate 7.5 gigatons of CO2e by 2050 if it remains unchecked. Boston-headquartered Monaire aims to reverse this trend and take the world towards more sustainable heating and cooling systems that are environment-friendly, efficient, and cost-effective.
Monaire, which uses AI to curb waste and emissions from small commercial buildings, has snapped $3.5 million in seed funding. Construct Capital led the round with participation from Workshop Ventures, and individual investments from Steve Fredette, the president and co-founder of Toast, and Tom Kuo, co-founder of A-Street and chairman of the board at Mighty Earth.
The company plans to use the funding to continue developing its proprietary sensors and AI technology, as well as expanding into additional markets across the United States.
Shift towards sustainable heating and cooling
Founded in 2022 by Nishant Kanapilly and Rahul Subramany in Boston, Monaire offers predictive HVAC and Refrigeration (HVAC/R) maintenance & energy management solutions for small commercial buildings. The company uses AI to detect and diagnose problems with a building’s existing HVAC/R system and automatically dispatches vetted technicians to address issues.
By automatically detecting, diagnosing, and fixing problems with HVAC and refrigeration systems, Monaire reduces waste and emissions, and reduces costs for building owners.
Monaire aims to prevent 1 GT of that waste by creating new efficiencies by reducing system runtimes, preventing refrigerant leaks and food spoilage, upgrading HVAC/R systems, and reducing inefficient operations, while also helping to build and run a more sustainable, efficient grid.
“Upgrading and efficiently managing HVAC/R systems requires a lot of money and skilled technicians, both of which are often out of reach for the owners of small commercial buildings,” said Rahul Subramany, Co-founder of Monaire. “Monaire eases that pain by modernising a building’s existing HVAC/R system using our advanced wireless sensors, smart controllers, and AI monitoring. Instead of wasting food, energy, and money while waiting for emergency fixes, Monaire instantly makes buildings more efficient while automatically detecting and fixing problems before they fail.”
“Old-school analog systems dominate critical HVAC/R technology used in small commercial operations,” said Dayna Grayson, partner at Construct Capital. “Tech-driven yet economical solutions that show immediate results and impact are needed to help revitalise and modernise small commercial businesses. Monaire’s pricing and maintenance coupled with easy-to-install, low-tech hardware brings a really elegant solution to this market.”
“Heating, cooling, and refrigeration systems are a major contributor to climate change,” said Chad Laurans, partner at Workshop Ventures and co-founder and chairman of SimpliSafe. “Monaire’s initiatives have the potential to significantly mitigate climate change impacts by reducing 1 GT of CO2e emissions from small commercial HVAC/R systems – the equivalent of removing 217 million cars from the road for one year.”
