Scaler, a company focused on decarbonizing real estate with machine learning, ESG data collection, and reporting announced it had raised $10 million led by Plural in Series A funding. This funding round, which included participation from previous investor Base10, will be used to develop the product further, grow the engineering team, and expand to new markets beyond Europe to set a new standard in ESG decision-making.
Real estate is known as the world’s largest polluting industry as it contributes to a high percentage of global emissions, including building operations and construction.
And while regulatory pressure is pushing the sector to reach Net Zero targets by 2050, real estate investors have to manage climate risks by investing in renewable energy while also delivering returns. With just a small percentage able to support the transition to net-zero in their current form, building owners need tools to help them meet new regulations effectively and sustainably, helping to avoid the financial and ESG risks that real estate potentially faces.
Over the past decade, real estate investment firms have depended on a combination of increasingly complex spreadsheets, legacy software, and consultants to try to understand the impact of their assets, which hasn’t solved the problem. Launched in 2021, Scaler is building the software infrastructure for streamlining ESG data collection and reporting and transforming it into insights that will drive sustainable change to get to net zero.
Scaler was launched by CEO Zlatan Menkovic (former startup founder and product lead at Uber) and CBO Luc van de Boom (real estate ESG background and an early employee at GRESB). Van de Boom was frustrated with how complex and outdated data collection and reporting was in the industry, the lack of tools for automating tasks and providing insights, and the fact that existing platforms were only meaningful for ESG experts.
Scaler’s platform stands out by providing real estate investors and asset managers with granular data and insights across all their assets, down to building and meter levels. This unique feature allows users to uncover the biggest problems and prioritize activity. Plus, Scaler’s models assist clients in creating roadmaps and ordering work like retrofitting or installing heat pumps and solar panels.
Scaler’s platform is not only comprehensive but also user-friendly. It allows customers to model the impact of decisions and their overall portfolio on their asset-level footprint and generate reports for different disclosure and regulatory requirements. The tool was designed to be easy for specialists and non-specialists, making it accessible to a wider audience. By offering an all-in-one platform for reporting, data analysis, and modeling, Scaler is helping real estate investors tackle the operational carbon footprint of their assets and take action for a more sustainable future.
Since its launch, the company has been working with 30 customers who have over $350 billion in management and have collectively planned $840 million in improvement and retrofit measures through the platform. In 2022, Scaler users reduced their carbon output by 15 million kgs—equivalent to the electricity use of over 10,000 homes a year. The new funding round will support Scaler on this global mission, which enables it to expand beyond Europe and the US to the APAC region, where it recently signed its first customers and hired its first team member. Scaler plans to grow to 50 people before the end of the year so it can continue building out the product and invest in its technology to drive further value to its customers.
KEY QUOTES:
“If you want to have a global impact, there are few better places to start than the real estate industry. Investors are under pressure to decarbonize their portfolios, but to do this effectively they need data, presented and analyzed in a way that helps them make the best decisions, for their clients and the world. This is exactly the problem we’re solving with Scaler and we’ve been blown away by the reaction and feedback from our customers. We’re delighted to work with Plural to take Scaler to the next level. Few VCs have the operational and founder knowledge that Plural has and we believe they will be a brilliant partner to help us build Scaler into a globally impactful company.”
- Zlatan Menkovic, co-founder and CEO of Scaler
“Solving the real estate industry’s carbon problem is complex, when north of 60% of carbon emissions in major cities come from buildings and energy use is only increasing. In only a few years, Scaler has built the most compelling software solution in the market to rapidly appraise investors’ ESG scores across their properties and outline concrete strategies to meet net zero targets. This is all thanks to the vision and experience of the founding team: Zlatan, a brilliant repeat founder who has honed the craft of product management and data at Uber, and Luc who has deep knowledge of the industry and was involved in creating the first ESG reporting standards for real estate. We’re excited to work with them to transform the real estate industry.”
- Khaled Helioui, Partner at Plural
