Detroit cloud-based startup KODE Labs raises $8m to advance its smart building platform

KODE Labs, a Detroit cloud-based smart building startup, announced it has raised a Series A investment of $8 million led by I Squared Capital and other strategic investors.

The company was founded by brothers Edi and Etrit Demaj in October 2017. KODE is dedicated to making buildings smarter, healthier and more efficient to improve the experience for the people that live, work, visit and play in them. To maximize the impact of digital technologies for real estate, KODE has developed a platform that integrates all forms of building management and operational systems while reducing energy, carbon emissions and automating operations.

Etrit Demaj, Co-founder at KODE Labs: ''We're excited to partner with top PropTech investors who not only bring financial backing but also a tremendous amount of market expertise needed to grow. This funding is going to allow us to continue to invest in R&D while maintaining our competitive advantages. In order to meet today's problems and the growing needs of buildings of the future, we've built software that addresses them now, resulting in high level of client satisfaction.''

The company has scaled into three continents, attracting some of the largest REITs, educational institutions and corporations in the world, while also enabling clients and partners to deploy smart buildings seamlessly and affordably. This comes on the heels of the 2022 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that included $369 billion in spending and clean energy-related tax credits to counter climate change. KODE's platform has delivered energy savings of up to 30% and operational savings of up to 50% across multiple global portfolios.

The brothers were born in Kosovo and moved to Detroit in 1999 as refugees during the Kosovo War. Their ties to both communities led to the company's name (KO) for Kosovo and (DE) for Detroit. KODE has offices in both Detroit and Kosovo. The founders are serial entrepreneurs with a long-standing history of working in the real estate industry, spanning from management, development, finance and infrastructure to technology.

Since launching, KODE Labs has been revitalizing the smart building space in North America, Europe and Australia. The company has partnered with notable Fortune 100 companies, including global REITs like QuadReal, Bedrock Detroit and Stream Realty.

Peter Corsell, Global InfraTech Fund Partner, I Squared Capital: "KODE Labs is delivering significant reductions in energy consumption and carbon emissions in the built environment. We are extremely impressed with KODE's technology as well as Edi and Etrit's expertise and ability to execute."

QuadReal, ranked first in North America and second Globally for sustainability by GRESB in 2020, has worked with KODE to deploy its platform in more than 50 buildings over the last 18 months and is now planning to roll out the KODE OS across its entire portfolio.

Thano Lambrinos, Senior Vice President of Digital Buildings, Experiences & Innovation, QuadReal Property Group: "We have evaluated many smart-building software solutions in the past 24 months, and the KODE OS platform significantly outperforms the competition by a wide margin. Its ability to continue to provide value and payback as new use cases are needed made it a no-brainer for us."

www.kodelabs.com