Proptech Bergen Tested!

Written by: Tommy Hagenes, Energy Control and Proptech Bergen, and Roar Smelhus, 6CST, Home Workspace and Proptech Bergen

Proptech Bergen was established to be an accelerator for new technology. An interesting and strategic consequence of this is that we attract exciting tenants, and together we have now filled 1,000 sqm at Kokstad. The next goal is to soon start filling the next floors, and we are doing this in dialogue with Nordea, which owns the building.

Proptech has in recent years truly made its mark on the construction and real estate sector. Although proptech is now gaining pace, Hagenes predicted in January 2020 that the negative news would come. This is natural during a boom, and among all start-ups, regardless of industry. During the year we have seen several proptech companies struggling and therefore having to downsize. Yanzi in Sweden, which not long ago was valued in the billion-kroner range, went bankrupt in July. Over recent years we have worked with and evaluated a range of different proptech companies. We do not bring along or recommend players that cannot meet our criteria for a sustainable product – and with the right company strategy.

For landlords the problem is greater than ever. What kind of technology should we invest in, and what is the product/service supposed to solve? Landlords we have spoken with, who are in one way or another connected to Proptech Bergen, say they are inundated with calls from various proptech companies trying to pitch their idea. To solve the sustainability challenges we are dependent on new technology, but it is a jungle out there, and without buildings and concepts like Proptech Bergen one quickly loses one's way. That is why Proptech Bergen Tested! is now being launched as a continuation of Proptech Bergen.

Over the last 18 months we at Proptech Bergen have tested over 1,500 different sensor technologies. For Hagenes this is a passion and hobby, but for it to be sustainable we will most likely need to scale down. What we see over time with Proptech Bergen is that it is no longer about "pushing" new technology – the recognition is that technology forces itself forward regardless, due to the needs we now have. At Proptech Bergen we have seen a trend: the more technology we get, the more is discarded. Not everything is equally good, and much of the technology is also not mature enough. Our philosophy is that what is good we speak loudly about, and what is not good enough, we want to help technology companies understand buildings and how complex they really are.

Now that technology is moving towards "as a service", it is more important than ever to make the right technological choices. What happens if the company doesn't exist tomorrow? The data is in the cloud, and it is now owned by the bankruptcy estate. We see that the value creation we have done at Proptech Bergen is to act as a coarse filter. We see that west coast companies have really accelerated their use of technology through their visits to us, where they can check out what works and what doesn't. We want to share this with all of Norway, and we also have international ambitions. The first thing we do when we get new technology at Proptech Bergen is set it up and install it for testing on its own. Most companies usually pass the test at this stage, but it is only when we test this together with the building's ecosystem that the property technology "falls through". You normally don't get the opportunity to test in buildings, due to locked silos and the dependence on a pilot project. We need to innovate outside the traditional projects, because we need to test a lot. A key to achieving this is opening up all data. Membership of Proptech Bergen should be a learning arena – an arena for showcasing one's challenges and one's solutions. Through Proptech Tested, and by having open MQTT/API standards in the building, we give proptech companies the opportunity to prove their technology, and landlords and developers can actually see that the technology works and delivers value before implementation begins. This melting pot is a collaborative effort that connects professional communities throughout Norway to test and contribute to the coarse filter.

At Proptech Bergen we are now taking this a step further. We see a need to expand both capacity and competence, and Energy Control has therefore hired Daniel Westervik. For landlords we now have a unique opportunity, where we can share our expertise through an annual subscription. The next time a new start-up calls, you can easily check in the Proptech Bergen database whether the product has been tested and certified. If not, you can "outsource" the entire testing to us, and use your time on what you should really be spending it on. We see that the potential of the concept is so great, and we must continue to attract diverse expertise. That is precisely why we are now also considering whether to establish a Home Workspace on the ground floor, so that the competence of the future can be built here. That would put the whole building into play and to an even greater extent connect start-ups, corporates, students, academia, etc.

This journey has already begun, but now we're starting the journey towards Proptech Bergen 2.0.

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