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- Cohesion’s smart building platform growth is driven by rising costs and uncertain demand caused by shift to hybrid workforces
- Platform addresses key trends for commercial real estate owners including an accelerated focus on building health and greater emphasis to reduce the carbon footprint of commercial buildings
CHICAGO, IL – November 17, 2020 07:00 AM EST
Cohesion, a leader in smart building and digital twin SaaS technology, raised $15 million in its Series A financing round co-led by Morgan Stanley Next Level Fund and Hyde Park Angels (HPA), which closed Friday.
The company added several marquee names to an already noteworthy list of investors following a $5 million seed round last summer. New investors, Three Bridges Private Capital and Wintrust Ventures, join seed round investors Singapore-based Frasers Property Group, ESD, Ken Griffin, Citadel Founder and CEO, Michael Sacks of GCM Grosvenor, and Raj Gupta of ESD.
“We were pleased to co-lead Cohesion’s Series A with Next Level Fund’s inaugural investment,” said Alice Vilma, Co-Portfolio Manager, Morgan Stanley Next Level Fund. “With the support of our corporate partners, Microsoft, Hearst and Walmart, we aim to accelerate Cohesion’s API-first technology platform to disrupt commercial real estate operations.”
The company will use the funds for product and market expansion including its digital twin technology for optimizing building environment and health. Cohesion continues to create one of the world’s largest repositories of commercial real estate data, which it uses to establish industry operations benchmarks. Bringing this data to life through artificial intelligence and predictive modeling, the company will lead the industry transformation to autonomous buildings. It will also continue to focus on strategic channel growth, partnering with firms such as Morgan Stanley, Transwestern, The John Buck Company, and Riverside Investment & Development.
“Bringing the power and promise of autonomous technology to commercial real estate is more critical today than ever before,” said Thru Shivakumar, Co-Founder and CEO at Cohesion. “As a leader in this emerging space, we have the technological capability to connect disparate systems and use big data to make buildings more transparent, healthier, engaging and sustainable. Investing in technology that ensures commercial real estate is a positive contributor to our world is central to our company ethos.”
With tens of millions of square feet of commercial office space under its management, Cohesion is continuing to transform commercial real estate with smart technologies that improve the tenant experience, streamline operations and optimize revenue. Its patented platform combines the three main factors that impact building operations – the human aspect, building systems and environmental elements – into a single, multi-function management and data platform that simulates building operations to predict outcomes for the rapidly evolving industry.
“We believe there is a need for the solutions Cohesion is creating,” said Cohesion Board Member Steve Koch, HPA member and former Global Chair of M&A at Credit Suisse. “By connecting the things that matter – whether it is improving health through effective air quality management, supporting ESG and sustainability programs, or delivering insights – Cohesion is poised for success through its next generation technology.”
About Cohesion
Founded in 2018 and currently 100 employees worldwide, Cohesion helps commercial buildings better integrate disparate systems into a smart building SaaS platform. It empowers real estate owners to maximize asset and portfolio value with all building systems, workflows and people seamlessly connected in one solution. The vertically integrated platform improves health and wellness, experience, efficiency, and sustainability. Cohesion provides the industry’s most comprehensive data, enabling operators to enhance tenant experience, save money and increase operational transparency. Cohesion is a spin-off venture of ESD, a leading Chicago-based global engineering design firm at the forefront of next generation building design. For more information, visit cohesionIB.com and follow @CohesionIB.
About Morgan Stanley Next Level Fund
The Morgan Stanley Next Level Fund, L.P. invests in primarily early-stage technology and technology-enabled companies with women or diverse members as part of the founding team from target sectors including technology, consumer/retail, financial technology, healthcare and media & entertainment. Investors in the strategy include the key inaugural corporate partners: Hearst, Microsoft and Walmart. This strategy will build upon the expertise of the Morgan Stanley Multicultural Innovation Lab, Morgan Stanley’s in-house start-up accelerator, and HearstLab, which provides cash investment and services to early-stage, women-led startups. For further information, please visit www.morganstanley.com/im/nextlevel.
About Hyde Park Angels
HPA is a leading early-stage investor. Our People First model leverages world-class operating expertise, a powerful business network, and venture capital to fuel startup success. As a result, our founders transform their businesses into industry leaders, our investors generate best-in-class returns, and our community experiences job creation and economic growth.
