Conservation Labs – an artificial intelligence (AI) company that developed a groundbreaking platform that decodes audio data into actionable insights in the built environment to reduce carbon emissions and energy and water usage – announced that it had raised a $7.5 million Series A funding round. This funding round was led by RET Ventures’ Housing Impact Fund and included the participation of Sustain VC.
Conservation Labs was launched out of a desire to merge analytic innovation with environmental stewardship. And the company’s flagship product H2know is focused on water conservation. With over 5 trillion gallons of unwanted water use across the globe, water conveyance and use drive up to 3 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions annually and consume up to 8% of energy use. Those trillions of gallons equate to over $100 billion of wasted expenses for building owners and residents.
Conservation Labs addresses the problem with a novel solution. In 2021, the company unveiled H2know, a smart sensor that attaches to water pipes in residential, multifamily, and commercial buildings and listens to the sound going through the pipes. With proprietary machine learning trained on thousands of hours of pipe acoustics, H2know translates those sounds into actionable water insights, leak alerts, and custom conservation recommendations. These sensors can monitor individual units or entire buildings, providing remote visibility and insights and critical leak alerts.
To further its goal, Conservation Labs employed its AI platform to develop Sustainable Machines, a product suite that assesses the condition of machinery. And by interpreting a machine’s sound profile, the product delivers operational insights and predictive maintenance recommendations, thus reducing maintenance costs and extending the machinery’s life. With early adopters of Sustainable Machines generating an ROI over 100% through increased maintenance efficiency and improved uptime, the company has sold nearly 10,000 sensors nationwide.
A leading real estate technology VC, RET Ventures has an investment strategy that is informed by its strategic investors, 50+ leading real estate firms that own and operate more than 2.5 million rental units. And RET Ventures invested in Series A out of its Housing Impact Fund, which focuses on companies that help real estate firms holistically address their environmental, social, and governance-related needs and drive clear operational efficiencies for property managers and leasing teams.
KEY QUOTES:
“Since unveiling H2know in 2021, we are helping clients reduce their water use by 20% or more, but the larger impact of our technology has been even greater. In a typical building, water is one of the largest consumers of energy; by reducing water usage our technology has also enabled buildings to cut their energy costs in a significant way. With this funding in hand, we’re excited to accelerate H2know™ deployments as well as build out other product lines that leverage our AI-powered edge to cloud platform.”
– Mark Kovscek, Founder and CEO of Conservation Labs
“Conservation Labs’ innovative approach to water conservation provides an operational edge to its clients, and the real estate market opportunity for H2know is massive. With our investment, Conservation Labs will be fast-tracking its product development and go-to-market strategies for both of its core products. We’re excited to collaborate with Mark and the entire leadership team as they continue developing new commercial applications for their breakthrough technology.”
– Christopher Yip, Partner at RET Ventures
