The innovation frontier of the Smart City and the Smart Building is rapidly evolving, with more and more startups finding important business opportunities in these markets. In fact, both in the Italian context and in the international panorama, the adoption of digital technologies capable of reducing building consumption and polluting emissions, improving the mobility of citizens and making buildings and cities safer and more comfortable places is looking with increasing interest. .

The Internet of Things Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano, in collaboration with the Startup Intelligence Observatory, surveyed and analyzed the international startups operating in the Smart Building and Smart City areas. The subject of the analysis was 307 Italian and international startups active in the two areas. Of these, 212 have received funding in the last 3 years, raising a total of 8.5 billion dollars, with an average of around 39.9 million dollars per startup.

The results of the research were presented by Giulio Salvadori, Elisa Vannini and Roberta Vadruccio respectively Director, Researcher and Analyst of the Internet of Things Observatory, on the occasion of a dedicated Workshop within the Startup Intelligence Observatory. The meeting hosted the pitches of eleven startups, who presented their innovations in front of an audience of over 130 Managers from the Partner and Sponsor companies of the two Observatories.

The startups have explored the Smart City area with solutions for monitoring and managing the elements of a city (for example means for public transport, public lighting, parking lots) and the surrounding environment (for example rivers, woods, mountains) to improve livability, sustainability and competitiveness; but also for the Smart Building area, as regards the automatic management of building systems and systems (for example those for lighting and air conditioning) for energy saving, comfort, safety of the building and people inside.

For the Smart Building area, they presented six startups:

–Enerbrain, presented by Co-Founder and CEO Giuseppe Giordano, allows the remote management of heating, cooling and ventilation systems via the Cloud, guaranteeing results in terms of energy savings, improvement of internal environmental comfort and reduction of CO2 and carbon footprint.

–Isaac, specialized in the development of intelligent solutions for seismic protection and structural monitoring, has patented I-Pro 1, the first self-adaptive, plug and play and one-size-fits-all technology for seismic protection, applicable to existing buildings, as told by Giovanni Rebecchi, Sales technical manager.

- Hive Power, a Swiss startup presented by Co-Founder and CEO Gianluca Corbellini, offers software solutions to all players in the energy value chain, from wholesalers, distributors and aggregators of flexible assets (such as batteries, charging stations , and heat pumps), to optimize supply chain management and increase flexibility, according to multiple business models.

–Wattsdat has developed a Cloud platform that models and manages complex energy systems. As told by the Founder and Chairman Giulio Troncarelli, the platform allows you to view and monitor objects, technologies, consumption, production and prices to quantitatively and continuously evaluate both the cash flow and the way in which energy is used.

- UpSens, presented by the CEO and CO-founder Ketty Paller, develops and produces connected multi-sensor devices (IoT) aimed at developing applications to promote and enable environmental monitoring inside buildings, proposing an offer mainly of the Business type to Business.

–Finally, Nextome, active in the field of positioning and indoor navigation, provides tools to manage infrastructures and analyze data in real time. As told by Fabio Ostuni, Business Developer, the startup has patented a technology that stands out for its high precision, excellent value for money and an easy installation approach.

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