Smart & Connective

Saving energy in buildings

What if IoT and connected objects could allow us to transform offices and shops into more eco-friendly spaces? Such is the challenge taken up by Ambre Saurat, Guy Saurat, and Robert Colli.

We are told, of course, to turn off the lights when we leave the room, avoid overheating in winter, and not turn the air conditioning up in summer. Simple things can help us fight against energy waste and reduce our bills. Artificial intelligence could also be a key ally in limiting our environmental impact. “If you’re in a 5,000 m² office, for example, you won’t heat according to occupancy rate if people go on coffee breaks and leave the windows open. By connecting buildings, you can factor in these parameters and reduce consumption by up to 35%,” enthuses Ambre Saurat, co-founder of Smart & Connective. This entrepreneur first launched a residential automation company with her father, Guy Saurat, in South-East Asia:
“We were doing very high-end home automation and, gradually, the demand from luxury hotels turned towards energy savings. At the time, we were not technology inventors. That is when we created Smart & Connective, and my husband, Robert Colli, an IT developer, joined the adventure. We did the R&D in South-East Asia, but as there was not yet an overarching concern for ecology over there, we decided to come back to France, where the government is willing to act to cut energy consumption.”

Hardware and software development

Smart & Connective is tackling existing tertiary buildings, which are among the primary sources of pollution. Its targets? Lighting, heating, air conditioning, and ventilation. They are the four most energy-intensive parts of building operations. To track losses, the start-up offers a light, connected Building Management System with an Internet of Things ecosystem, automatons, and software to monitor your facilities online. “It’s a B2B solution, and we are currently talking to the biggest players in the market. It’s then up to energy managers to decide on the energy scenarios they wish to apply according to the use of their buildings based on our solutions. The government has recommended that the French stay at 19°C to limit consumption this year,” continues Ambre Saurat. Aware of the ups and downs of launching a start-up, the managing director wanted to foster a collaborative environment in her company. 

And in conclusion, “If somebody had told me I would one day work with my family, I wouldn’t have believed them. But it’s a great adventure, with software, hardware, raising funds, this experience abroad, and now the Côte d’Azur. 
I think we are all happy in the team to go home in the evening and be able to tell our children that we are trying to do something for the planet.” 

L’avis du jury

« Smart & Connective, entrée au Village by CA, est une start-up au sens propre du terme car c’est un projet innovant à fort potentiel. Nous souhaitons mettre en avant ceux qui créent de l’algorithme et pas juste ceux qui l’utilisent, des entreprises qui développent du 2.0 et font du machine learning. »

Smart & Connective
Localisation : Valbonne
Création : 2021
Activité : soutien aux entreprises
Collaborateurs : 14
Capital social : 155 529 €