Here at 1Flourish Capital, we're always on the lookout for innovative founders with the vision, expertise and character to create new IT-based solutions in potentially explosive growth markets. Commercial Real Estate (CRE) is still in the early stages of the technology innovation cycle, creating a significant opportunity for insightful startups. We are on the hunt for opportunities in this space and are fortunate to have a vast network of talented people who refer other world-class entrepreneurs our way.
We have Honghao Deng, the founder of Butlr, to thank for referring Trebellar to us. Butlr is a 1Flourish company that created a breakthrough, anonymous, people-sensing platform that tracks body temperature/movement and is able to make workplaces safer and more efficient. Butlr is quickly becoming the category leader with top tier customers like Walmart, Verizon, and Uber. The company also partners with other leading CRE technology companies, like Trebellar, to build world class solutions.
We were very intrigued when we met Deigo and David, co-founders at Trebellar, who are tackling a major challenge in managing the growing complexity of data from Internet enabled building and facility devices (“IoT”) that measure building occupancy, security, HVAC, water usage, and power. Trebellar’s solutions simply and powerfully enable property managers to track, optimize and automate the management of all their smart devices in a unified view. The company’s platform has the opportunity to make huge savings in energy usage, building management costs, and employee’s quality of facility experience.
A Dream Team: Founders with Brains and Brawn
Trebellar's story starts with its impressive founders. Diego Ferreiro Val, the CEO, brings a wealth of experience from his long, distinguished tenure as the first engineer and later VP of Infrastructure at Salesforce. Diego was one of the youngest executives at Salesforce and a key product architect. His expertise lies in ingesting data from diverse sources and building customizable dashboards – exactly the skillset needed for Trebellar's core offering. Co-founder and CTO David Quintas boasts deep technical experience from companies like CERN and Google, where he worked on artificial Intelligence and machine learning research.
But smarts are just one piece of the puzzle. We were equally impressed by the founders' character. Diego is committed to a strong culture of transparency and accountability. Diego sends us a detailed monthly report with Trebellar’s wins, losses and learnings. This type of monthly reporting is exceptionally good and rare. Diego and his team commit to and deliver aggressive product and sales timelines, all with a spirit of curiosity, continuous learning and customer commitment.
Solving a Billion-Dollar Problem: Unified Data for Smarter Buildings
Trebellar is tackling a big problem. As Class A office buildings become increasingly equipped with IoT devices – think HVAC systems, occupancy sensors, and security systems – managing the data these systems generate becomes unachievable in real time. Each IoT device typically operates with its own unique data format, requiring expensive custom integrations to achieve a unified view of a building’s activities. This complexity is out of reach or too expensive for almost all building owners and facility managers.
Trebellar's secret sauce lies in its ability to ingest data from multiple sources, regardless of format. The company then normalizes this data and presents actionable insights/recommendations in a user-friendly, customizable dashboard. This empowers property managers to see everything that's happening in their buildings in real-time, from occupancy rates to energy usage. Imagine the cost savings from optimizing HVAC systems based on actual usage patterns, not a 9-to-5 schedule!
A Market Ripe for Disruption
The CRE PropTech market represents a massive opportunity. Trebellar estimates its total addressable market (TAM) at a staggering $250 billion in annual office management spend that could be optimized. This includes energy costs, wasted space due to inefficient utilization, and unnecessary cleaning expenses.
Furthermore, the trend towards remote work creates a compelling need for solutions like Trebellar. Buildings are no longer occupied in a traditional way, and CRE managers need smarter tools to adapt. Additionally, the growing focus on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors makes energy efficiency a top priority for many corporations. Trebellar provides a clear path to reducing a building's environmental footprint.
Early Traction and Big Plans
Despite being a young company, Trebellar has already secured its first paying customer – a fortune 500 company, which has been very helpful in providing Trebellar key insights/requirements on what it takes to be successful. They installed Trebellar’s solution in one of the largest buildings in San Francisco. Over time, Trebellar sees its solution expanding to all 100 of their buildings globally, representing a significant revenue opportunity.
Why We Invested
We at 1Flourish were impressed by Trebellar on multiple fronts. The team's technical and business expertise, theco-founders significant years of relevant experience in building and delivering excellent products, combined with their commitment to building a high-character company; this is a winning formula! Trebellar’s technology solves a real and growing problem in a massive potential market, and the company has already secured early validation from a key CRE development partner.
While Trebellar faces many significant challenges, particularly in navigating the traditionally slow-to-change PropTech industry, we believe Trebellar is well-positioned to become a leading ProTech solution provider. We're excited and honored to be a part of the company’s journey and look forward to seeing them transform commercial real estate management.
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