Artificial intelligence (AI) and deep tech are revolutionizing how building developers and owners design, build and maintain their properties thanks to Adaptis, a Velocity startup. The decision-making platform supports optimizing cost-benefit and carbon usage from concept to completion by integrating financial, sustainability and operational data.
In its latest seed funding round, Adaptis has secured $4 million USD ($5.5 million CDN) from Building Ventures, including MetaProp, 2048 Ventures, Powerhouse Ventures and Blue Vision Capital.
“Through each seed investment stage, Adaptis has been able to build upon our momentum through upgrading our platform and scaling across different geographies,” says Sheida Shahi (PhD ‘21), CEO of Adaptis. “We’re continuing to build out our product and sales teams to best position us for our next phase of growth.”
The platform spearheaded by Shahi and co-founder Aida Mollaei (PhD ‘24) empowers owners, architects and engineers to lower building costs, generate more design options, reduce project timelines and optimize on-going operational costs.
Originally envisioned to support one building at a time, customers encouraged Adaptis to offer the same support for multiple buildings.
“It has been an exciting journey so far, and what we’ve discovered along the way is that our original concept still resonates,” Shahi says. “Customers still want what we first brought to market, so now we are looking at ways to make it even better.”
Adaptis could play an important role in addressing the ongoing housing crisis facing communities across Canada and the United States. By integrating hundreds of compliance parameters into a single AI-driven platform, including those related to building permits and assessments, the platform can shorten timelines to weeks from months and help developers break ground faster.
Shahi and Mollaei originally developed Adaptis as graduate students at the University of Waterloo. They intended to build a platform that automated the circularity of buildings during their whole lifecycle. To turn their sustainable technology into a viable business, they needed to make it economically beneficial for the client.
“Linking profitability and sustainability is not just a strategic advantage in the construction and real estate development sector — it’s becoming a requirement for long-term success,” Shahi says. “Especially amid rising regulatory pressure, consumer demand for greener buildings and escalating construction costs, our platform provides decision-makers with vital real-time information they need right at their fingertips.”
As a data-driven platform, Adaptis provides in-depth actionable, retrofit and decarbonization strategies that seamlessly integrate into capital planning workflows.
Adaptis has seen their revenue double since 2023, expanding into eight regions including British Columbia, Washington State and New York. The platform has more than 350 buildings in active operation, with another 400 more set to onboard next quarter.
Just as impressively, the platform has diverted more than 6,000 tons of waste and avoided 108,000 Co2 emissions while saving building owners an average of 20 per cent in capital expenditures.
With Ontario targeting to build 1.5 million homes by 2031, and many other jurisdictions across North America with similar targets, tools like Adaptis have the potential to streamline building processes and support expediting homebuilding to meet those demands.
“When we look to the future, we are excited about the work ahead in coordinating the science, technology and scalable infrastructure required to continue supporting our customers to succeed.”
