Building SaaS for decarbonization in construction

With just over a year in business and milestones of massive success, Adaptis Technologies Inc. is an entrepreneurial testament to a driving passion that pays off.  

Founded by Sheida Shahi and Aida Mollaei in March of 2022, Adaptis is a decision-support software as a service (SaaS) for improving decarbonization decision making for existing buildings and new construction projects. Focused on energy use optimization, material use and construction methods, Adaptis produces circularity planning to extend the life of buildings, open opportunities for material recycling and improve materials throughout buildings, both new and old.  

Based on years of experience and research between the two founders, Adaptis was created because the industry was in need of a technology-powered solution.

The art of improving decarbonization decision making for construction is traditionally manual work done by architects, based on an ability to assess varying scenarios (both current and goal oriented) and consult on best practices. Adaptis uses fast algorithms to help automate and optimize the consulting process, delivering 50 times more design options in approximately eight percent of the time used for traditional, manual design. This also makes Adaptis’ SaaS approximately six-to-ten times less expensive, depending on the building type and size. 

Adaptis Technologies is a recent i.d.e.a. Fund recipient. Supported by a $10-million Government of Canada investment, through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), the i.d.e.a Fund is led by Innovation Guelph in partnership with five Regional Innovation Centres (RICs): WeTechAlliance, Haltech, Innovate Niagara, Innovation Factory and TechAlliance of Southwestern Ontario. The program helps high-potential ventures access the tools they need to succeed by providing financial and business advisory supports to develop or redesign products, services, processes and technologies that reduce impacts on the environment and create made-in-Canada solutions. 

The company applied  to the i.d.e.a. Fund while it was still brand new to business, and the funding came with other supports that proved equally, if not more valuable. Adaptis was able to hire contractors and part-time staff, some of whom are now full-time employees. More importantly, receiving this funding gave the company a value proposition.  
 

“Receiving the i.d.e.a. Fund support gave us our first boost of confidence that pushed us to start our raise,” says Shahi. Acting as actual proof that they were a trusted and growing company, the founders could position themselves to new investors in new ways. “Being an entrepreneur myself, it was really easy to connect with the Adaptis founders on their experience and support them through the process of fundraising,” says Andrew Leest, Manager of Venture Growth at TechAlliance.  

Recently closing a successful $2-million CAD pre-seed round, Adaptis, now a strong team of six employees, is working on technology improvements of its SaaS to improve the user interface and develop its decision support platform — creating a new dashboard to deliver data to the customers in a way that translates the results from its scientific form to an easy-to-process report.  

To learn more about Adaptis Technologies, go to adaptis.ca 
To learn more about the i.d.e.a. Fund go to techalliance.ca/idea-fund 
To learn more about FedDev Ontario, go to https://feddev-ontario.canada.ca/en