RET Ventures Leads $7.5 Million Series A in Conservation Labs to Interpret Sound for Water Conservation and Machinery Maintenance
Artificial intelligence (AI) decodes acoustics into real-time insights to save industries billions of dollars
PITTSBURGH–(BUSINESS WIRE)–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, today announced that it has raised a $7.5-million Series A funding round. The round was led by RET Ventures’ Housing Impact Fund and included the participation of Sustain VC.
Conservation Labs was founded out of a desire to merge analytic innovation with environmental stewardship. 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 CO2 emissions annually, and consume up to 8% of energy use. Those trillions of gallons equate to more than $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. Using 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. The sensors can monitor individual units or entire buildings, providing remote visibility and insights as well as critical leak alerts.
“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,” says Mark Kovscek, Founder and CEO of Conservation Labs. “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.”
To further its mission, Conservation Labs employed its AI platform to develop Sustainable Machines™, a product suite that assesses the condition of machinery. By interpreting a machine’s sound profile, the product delivers operational insights and predictive maintenance recommendations, thereby 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 already sold nearly 10,000 sensors across the country.
A leading real estate technology VC, RET Ventures has an investment strategy informed by its strategic investors, 50+ leading real estate firms, which own and operate more than 2.5 million rental units. RET Ventures invested in the 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.
“Conservation Labs’ innovative approach to water conservation provides an operational edge to its clients, and the real estate market opportunity for H2know™ is massive,” said Christopher Yip, Partner at RET Ventures. “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.”
About Conservation Labs
Founded in 2016, Conservation Labs is an artificial intelligence company building a more sustainable planet. Its edge-to-cloud AI platform decodes the sounds of any object into actionable data. Whether with our first product, H2know™, that monitors water systems to deliver actionable water insights, leak alerts, and custom conservation recommendations, or our second product for Sustainable Machines™, that monitors and predicts the condition of any machine, reducing maintenance costs and extending its life, Conservation Labs is enhancing sustainability in the built environment. Please visit www.conservationlabs.com for more information.
About RET Ventures
A leading real estate technology investment firm, RET Ventures is the first industry-backed, early-stage venture fund strategically focused on building cutting-edge “rent tech” — technology for multifamily and single-family rental real estate. RET invests out of core venture funds and a Housing Impact Fund, backing companies that address a range of pain points for real estate operators. Through its deep expertise and connections, RET provides solutions to issues ranging from housing affordability and sustainability to risk management, operational efficiency and EV charging.
The firm’s Strategic Investors include some of the largest REITs and private real estate owner-operators and managers, who control over 2.5 million rental units worth over $600 billion dollars. For more information, please visit www.ret.vc
SustainVC
SustainVC is a venture capital firm that believes business can be a force for good. Since 2007, SustainVC’s impact investment funds have partnered with innovative entrepreneurs that share a vision of a sustainable, more equitable, and healthier world – with the goal of returning measurable social and environmental impact as well as market rate financial returns. The SustainVC portfolio includes nearly 50 high-impact, high-growth companies in the areas of Climate & Sustainability, Equality & Empowerment, and Health & Education. SustainVC has offices in Boston, Raleigh-Durham, and Philadelphia.
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