Innovation and funding heat up / Cap efficiency update

Smart Building Insight - Fundraising and Product Launches - June 2025 from Aamidor Consulting

Letter from the Editor

Summer is here (technically, but it’s been hot for a while!) and we have a big update, focused on fundraising and product launches.

There are a number of key items in this issue:

• A few interesting product launches that fit into general trends we’ve been talking about: Honeywell’s cloud platform, Kode Labs’ move to bridge the gap between CMMS and BAS, and Microsoft on digital twins.

• Funding that continues to lean towards early stages, but Budderfly announced a big debt round. We unpack the EEAAS model and Budderfly’s scale compared to peers.

• We highlighted nZero’s acquisition by Asuene two weeks ago, now one of their peers raised a sizable series C (one of the rare later stage rounds in this issue).

• A few new proptech/climatetech investors raised new funds.

• We revisit our capital efficiency research and take a look at some specific firms and their position in the market (see below).

• And, to close out the issue: With all the talk about AI, we have an interesting perspective, informed by this week’s Coatue East Meets West event. AI adoption may be driving an decouping of headcount and revenue - what does that mean for our industry?

Shameless plugs: Check out our podcast! Lewis Martin and Joe Aamidor host the “Down Low with Joe”, focuses on market developments and includes interviews with RE decarb/digitization innovators. Check out our YouTube channel or Spotify.

Also, conference season is upon us, and we’ll be attending a few events in the coming months - the next one on our calendar:

• Blueprint: Joe will be leading a panel - stay tuned for details. Readers of Smart Building Insight can get a discount on tickets. (Las Vegas, September 16-18)

A housekeeping item - we are starting to book projects into the fall - please reach out if you think you will need our help. We’d be happy to talk, but please get in touch soon!

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Aamidor Consulting Client Spotlight (Podcast Spotlight)

We have been helping a number of firms with voice of customer (VOC) analyses, utilizing our deep network of real estate buyers and users. In these engagements, we conduct interviews with out network to better understand their key challenges and also strategies to address them. This then informs the product strategy of our client (the vendors/solution providers). Our network spans all key commercial building asset classes, with network contacts in various roles (facility, energy, sustainability and technology/IT). If you are seeking to add more direct market feedback to your product strategy, please reach out.

This newsletter is a market wrap up and analysis of the smart buildings industry. If the email was forwarded to you, sign up to receive it directly.

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Smart building product launches and related announcements:

• Microsoft introduced a digital twin builder within its Fabric platform to support enterprise XR workflows, marking a strategic shift away from XR hardware following the discontinuation of its HoloLens offering.

• KODE Labs launched AssetOps to give facility teams unified control over maintenance, inspections, and asset management across their building portfolios.

  • There are a lot of CMMS + BAS developments, as we’ve discussed in recent months. (See our coverage of TMA acquiring Virtual Facility, available here). As it relates to this product launch: