Proptech Firm Embue Raises $2.3M in Seed Round

Building automation/control and climate tech company Embue raised $2.3 million in a seed round led by Shadow Ventures, and including Avesta Fund, Leder Investments, and others.

Embue focuses on making multifamily portfolios more energy and carbon efficient. “We offer a cloud-based service platform for connected devices across your building portfolio level right down to controlling, managing and servicing each unit, common areas and central equipment,” the company website says.

By collecting usage of heating/cooling and energy consumption on a per-unit basis and controlling equipment in the units, Embue “automatically detects and prevents unsafe and unhealthy settings in apartments and common areas. Embue’s temperature / humidity / occupancy sensing provide all the inputs needed to safely reduce energy spend while preserving healthy indoor conditions.”

The company says that its systems are either installed or under contract at more than 60 buildings and 6,000 units in “major national building portfolios” with many of the units being “senior and senior affordable buildings.”

One aspect of its service is predictive maintenance, addressing problems with scheduled maintenance and not emergency calls and labor.

“One of Embue’s biggest customers is WinnCompanies, the third largest affordable multifamily property management company in the US, according to the National Affordable Housing Management Association, with over 51,000 units of subsidized housing and 103,000 units of residential housing under management,” said an email from a PR firm representing the company. “Other customers of Embue include 2LifeCommunities, The Schochet Companies, and Maloney Properties.”

In June 2022, affordable senior housing company 2Life Communities extended its use of building management and control software from Embue. 2Life had already been using Embue’s systems in two of its Boston-area properties, Brown Family House and Coleman House. Now it has standardized on Embue for future development, renovation, and retrofit projects across its growing senior and senior affordable housing portfolio.

Energy has grown as an issue in multifamily for several reasons. One is cost. If you can provide what tenants expect while saving money, it goes to increase the bottom line. A second is the growing importance of ESG, or environmental, social, and governance. Investors are looking increasingly at ESG as something that will be necessary as aspects like climate change have larger impacts on properties and businesses.