Proptech Firm Butlr Gets $5M From Qualcomm Ventures

Butlr, a proptech firm focusing on what has of late been a popular category — measuring occupancy and sensing people — received an additional funding round of $5 million from Qualcomm Ventures.

A 2019 spin-off from the MIT Media Lab, the company “uses body heat and machine learning to detect occupancy, headcount and activity, and generate accurate, real-time and historical spatial insights while being incapable of collecting personally identifiable information,” according to a company press release.

The company also announced a new version of its Heatic wireless sensors and analytic tools.

“While Butlr’s technology is incapable of collecting personal information, its API offers real time and historical data on a building’s indoor foot traffic, occupancy levels and activity,” the company said. “These insights are used for asset management, real estate investment planning and policy making in workplaces globally as well as senior care.”

The question of anonymity is an important one, as privacy is often a concern. This is especially when discussing public spaces, retail stores, entertainment venues, and other locations where people might be more sensitive to being personally identified. Corporate offices can be a different consideration as a company would know who is supposed to have access to a building or areas within it.

Measuring occupancy can be accomplished with a variety of technologies, including security badge data, seat sensors, infrared, video with software analysis, Wi-Fi analysis, or beacon readings of cell phone activity. The choices come with different degrees of accuracy, cost, and privacy issues.

“There’s a growing demand for intelligent solutions that provide accurate and real-time occupancy utilization data to better support the hybrid work environment,” the press release quoted Carlos Kokron, vice president at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and managing director of Qualcomm Ventures Americas. “Butlr’s next-generation wireless occupancy-sensing platform provides customers with spatial insights to drive better space utilization and improve operational efficiencies, while preserving privacy.”

The new sensors mount magnetically, cover twice the area as before, and deliver information through wireless connections.

“The new Zones feature monitors desk utilization, soft seating and activity while the Space Visualizer shows usage trends based on heatmaps and people detections over time,” the company said. “The related data allows customers to conduct A/B testing to determine the best office layout that reflects the culture of the workforce and needs of the organization. Butlr’s API allows customers and partners to integrate occupancy data with other databases and develop customized tools that meet their unique business requirements.”