Facilio Announces Refrigeration Optimization Software for Food Retail

Facilio, a proptech company that has focused on smart building software, announced its Connected Refrigeration Solution product, which is designed to monitor, control, and optimize refrigeration in food retail operations such as grocery, convenience stores, and supermarkets.

Vendors typically design and sell systems for general building energy monitoring and control. However, that presumes a certain constancy in how operators run buildings, the types of uses within some range, and the potential optimizations. Refrigeration isn’t like oversized air conditioning. Temperature levels are an issue of product safety. Different storage configurations can affect how easily adequate temperatures can be maintained. Companies may have multiple locations as well as distribution centers.

“In the retail industry, the front-end technology has seen incredible advances, while the back-end store operations have not evolved or changed much. There is still heavy reliance on store-level siloed systems. It’s an area ripe for transformation,” a press release quoted Raj Subramanian, co-founder and chief product officer, as saying. “Our Connected Refrigeration solution helps retailers take control of their refrigeration systems, providing real-time visibility into the performance of their assets across all sites, enabling them to make informed decisions and reduce costs.”

The U.S. Department of Energy states that the retail, food service, and grocery sectors represent 14 billion square feet of floorspace in the country and an annual $41 billion energy cost. Food cooling and refrigeration are half that cost.

“Facilio lets retail store owners and operators optimize existing refrigeration systems to get ROI within 6 months and save up to 20% in refrigeration energy costs,” the company says. “Guaranteed outcomes include reduction in maintenance costs, service calls, and refrigerant leak rates. Among the early adopters of Facilio’s Connected Refrigeration Solution is one of the ‘big four’ supermarket chains in the UK for whom Facilio has delivered a 16% savings in energy and eliminated the cost of undetected refrigerant leaks within weeks of deploying the software. Facilio has also partnered with US-based IoT solutions provider, Tutenlabs to drive value for more than 10,000 retail sites across the country.”

The company more broadly uses Internet of Things technology and machine learning models to manage building operations, maintenance, and sustainability across portfolios of properties. According to Crunchbase, the company has raised $45.4 million in funding since 2017. Headquartered in New York City, Facilio has offices in Dubai, Chennai, Singapore, and Sydney.