Singapore · Proptech · Energy Efficiency
SensorFlow
The startup teaching hotel rooms a simple instinct: when nobody's home, stop cooling the empty air.
The startup teaching hotel rooms a simple instinct: when nobody's home, stop cooling the empty air.
Hotels spend a large share of their energy budget on air-conditioning, and a stubborn portion of that goes into cooling rooms and corridors that nobody is using. SensorFlow, a Singapore proptech company founded in 2016, attacks that waste with a deceptively small package: wireless IoT sensors, a room controller, and AI software that decides when the HVAC should run.
The sensors detect occupancy and conditions in each guest room. The software learns the patterns and automates the cooling - easing off when a room is empty, restoring comfort before a guest returns. The result the company reports is roughly a 30% reduction in HVAC energy costs, achieved without asking guests to change their behaviour or feel a difference.
Crucially, SensorFlow is built for retrofit. Its room hardware installs in under ten minutes, with no construction and, in its energy-as-a-service form, no upfront cost. That combination - measurable savings, minimal disruption, financing that follows the savings - is what has let the platform spread across tens of thousands of hotel rooms.
Figures reported by SensorFlow; energy savings independently audited by EarthCheck and Aquila. Approximate.
SensorFlow's customers are hotels and hospitality groups. Its reference list includes some of the largest names in the business - Hilton, Hyatt, Accor, Shangri-La and The Ascott - with deployments concentrated in Asia-Pacific and expansion toward the US.
The problem it solves is specific and expensive. For an operator, energy is one of the biggest controllable costs, and cooling empty rooms is pure waste. For a sustainability team, HVAC is a major source of a property's carbon footprint. For a general manager, any efficiency measure that degrades guest comfort is a non-starter.
SensorFlow's pitch is that it addresses all three at once: lower bills for finance, verified carbon reductions for sustainability, and no perceptible change for guests. During the COVID-19 occupancy collapse, that value became survival-grade - the platform helped hotels cut energy costs while rooms sat empty.
The company's dashboards translate raw meter readings into decisions an operations team can act on - which rooms drift, which floors run hot, where a compressor is quietly overworking. That visibility is often the first thing a property notices, before the automation even kicks in, because most hotels have never seen their consumption at the level of a single guest room in real time.
SensorFlow operates as a full-stack proptech company - hardware, connectivity and software - organised around a family of modular products.
Retrofit room energy management: wireless IoT devices that automate HVAC based on occupancy, installable in under 10 minutes per room.
Retrofit guest room control system for automating in-room climate and comfort.
Real-time granular metering across electricity, water and gas consumption.
A free building efficiency analytics tool for visualising utility data and surfacing savings.
Data-driven software that assigns rooms in a way that compounds energy efficiency - a first-of-its-kind tool for hotels.
Zero upfront cost financing where hotels pay through the savings the system generates, lowering the barrier to retrofit.
Plenty of vendors sell building management systems and smart thermostats. SensorFlow's difference is the combination: a wireless retrofit that avoids construction, an AI layer that automates rather than just reports, and third-party audited savings verified by EarthCheck and Aquila - so the numbers on the invoice are defensible.
The business model blends recurring software and analytics fees with IoT hardware, frequently packaged as energy-as-a-service. Instead of a capital purchase, hotels adopt through a subscription or shared-savings arrangement funded by the energy they no longer waste. That removes the classic objection to green retrofits: the upfront cheque.
It competes against traditional BMS vendors and hotel energy-management specialists, but positions itself on speed of deployment, hospitality focus, and verifiable outcomes rather than raw hardware.
SensorFlow sits at the intersection of three markets that are all expanding at once: the Internet of Things, building energy management, and hospitality technology. Each has plenty of incumbents, but few products live comfortably in all three.
Traditional building management systems are powerful but heavy - they assume new construction or a costly rewiring project, and they were designed for offices and commercial towers rather than the fragmented, room-by-room reality of a hotel. Consumer smart thermostats solve for a single home, not a 400-key property with housekeeping schedules, seasonal occupancy and brand-standard comfort requirements. SensorFlow's niche is the space in between: a wireless, room-level retrofit purpose-built for the way hotels actually operate.
That focus matters because hospitality is under growing pressure. Major hotel groups have public net-zero commitments, guests increasingly notice sustainability, and energy prices remain volatile. Regulators in several markets are tightening building-efficiency rules. For an operator weighing how to respond without a capital-heavy renovation, a retrofit that pays for itself through savings is an unusually easy decision to make.
SensorFlow's strategy has been to go deep in one vertical rather than broad across every building type. By concentrating on hotels - and proving out savings with recognisable brands and independent auditors - it has built a reference base that is hard for a generalist competitor to match. The company frames the opportunity as more than cost-cutting: efficiency, done invisibly, becomes part of how a modern hotel competes.
SensorFlow was founded by two engineers who saw hotels as a data problem, not just a cooling one.
Known as Sai, he brought experience in energy management and smart-home automation from a previous startup, Intraix, plus a technology analyst role at Goldman Sachs.
Holds a Master's in Computer Science and focused on IoT frameworks as a research associate at the National University of Singapore, where his work won an award at the 2015 IoT Conference.
Saikrishnan Ranganathan and Max Pagel launch SensorFlow to tackle energy waste in hotels.
Early investors back the IoT-and-AI energy management platform.
Openspace Ventures and Gaw Capital lead a round to expand the platform and enter the US market.
SensorFlow releases the first data-driven smart room allocation software for hotels.
New Asia-Pacific deployments and CEO speaking slots at major hospitality summits in Manila and Jakarta.
| Round | Amount | Date | Lead / Notable Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | US$2.7M | 2019 | Cocoon Capital, Insignia Ventures, SGInnovate, Wavemaker |
| Series A+ | US$8.3M | Apr 2020 | Openspace Ventures, Gaw Capital, Pierre Lorinet (Trafigura) |
| Total | US$11.6M | — | Across three rounds |
Round details compiled from public reporting. Approximate.
Video coverage and product walkthroughs live on the company's official YouTube channel.
It provides wireless IoT sensors and AI software that let hotels monitor, analyze and automate energy use - especially air-conditioning - to cut costs and carbon emissions while keeping guests comfortable.
The company reports roughly a 30% reduction in HVAC energy costs, with savings independently audited by EarthCheck and Aquila.
It was founded in Singapore in 2016 by CEO Saikrishnan Ranganathan and CTO Max Pagel.
Approximately US$11.6M in total, including a US$8.3M Series A+ round in April 2020 led by Openspace Ventures and Gaw Capital.
Its references include brands such as Hilton, Hyatt, Accor, Shangri-La and The Ascott, across 26,000+ rooms.
Reporting compiled from public sources including the company website, Dealroom, Tracxn, DealStreetAsia, Hospitality Net and TechRound. Figures approximate.