Frasers Property Group is investing in the seed funding for the platform of Cohesion, a US-based ‘Software as a service’ start-up which empowers the transition to smart buildings in the global commercial real estate space – enabling tenants, operators and owners to interact seamlessly with the spaces and communities of their office buildings for greater connectivity and productivity.

The platform by Cohesion helps commercial real estate operators to integrate their buildings’ systems, enhance tenant experiences, and provide actionable insights. It seeks to deliver greater operating efficiency and better tenant experiences, manage health and safety measures, and address real-time needs of all building occupants.

Besides Frasers Property, the seed round led by Hyde Park Angels also includes investments from Raj Gupta, Executive Chairman of ESD Global; Ken Griffin, Citadel founder and CEO; Michael Sacks, GCM Grosvenor CEO and chairman; global proprietary trading and investment firm CMT.

Meanwhile, Frasers Property is exploring to leverage the platform to enhance the future-readiness of its commercial buildings.

“The real estate industry is evolving rapidly. For Frasers Property to respond with agility, we’re looking at leveraging data-driven technologies to better manage our multinational real estate portfolio,” said Mr Panote Sirivadhanabhakdi, Group CEO, Frasers Property Limited. “We believe investing in Cohesion’s solution enables us to realise a vision where building systems and workflows can be seamlessly connected in a centralised intelligent building platform and has the ability to help create a future of work experience. Whether it is helping to improve people’s well-being through effective air quality management, supporting a sustainability agenda, or potentially yielding some cost efficiencies, we believe the overall benefits will also help enhance a more connected user experience.”

There are several driving forces behind the growth of the smart building market, including the rising adoption of IoT-enabled management systems, industry standards and benchmarks, and regulatory mandates for carbon footprint reduction. A recently published forecast from Fortune Business Insight estimated the global smart building market to reach USD 109.48 billion by 2026, up from 43.64 billion in 2018.

“COVID-19 has presented the commercial real estate industry with never-before-experienced pressure, forcing adaptation to reprioritised tenant needs of health and safety. Cohesion’s technology makes it much easier for owners and operators to meet this moment by equipping them with an all-in-one platform that predicts and adapts to their building’s environment and tenants’ needs,” said Ms Thru Shivakumar, Cohesion CEO and Co-Founder. “With this funding in place, we will continue advancing building intelligence capabilities to unlock an entirely new class of buildings that are more flexible, resilient, and data-enabled.”