Autonomous building platform startup PassiveLogic Inc. announced today it has raised $16 million in new funding to accelerate research and development.

The Series A round was led by Keyframe Capital and Addition and included RET Ventures, A/O Proptech and NREP.

Founded in 2016, PassiveLogic offers an autonomous building platform that provides a full-stack solution including tools to design, engineer, install, maintain and manage a building all from the one interface. For existing buildings, the company’s platform offers autonomous systems technology for controlled systems.

Under the hood, PassiveLogic uses what they call “Digital Twins” in combination with artificial intelligence future-forward controls. The Digital Twins provide virtual analogies to real-world objects to understand their behavior and interactions in a process called “deep physics.”

Within a building, the platform is built into PassiveLogic’s Hive edge controller. The Hive controllers are designed to work together to provide an edge platform for sensors, equipment and “internet of things” devices allowing whole-building resilient control without requiring cloud connectivity.

The Hive Digital Twin engine is built to understand how a building’s equipment and systems interact. That allows local in-building AI to make real-time control and management decisions that co-optimize comfort, maintenance, efficiency and operational costs.

PassiveLogic claims that in pilot projects, their platform delivered 30% energy savings along with 90% in labor savings in installation and commissioning compared with conventional solutions.

The technology has already found interest from the government with the U.S. Department of Energy awarding the company a $1.1 million contract to define an industry Digital Twin technology standards for next-generation automation systems.

“There has been a lot of talk about smart buildings in recent years, but when people say ‘smart’ they really just mean connected,” founder Troy Harvey said in a statement. “Our Digital Twin technology makes buildings truly intelligent and self-managing, taking them beyond conventional controls or other AI cloud add-ons in the marketplace.”

Image: PassiveLogic