Partner Tower

Explore the best in smart building solutions

Welcome to the new Partner Tower! With thousands of companies selling to the smart building industry, it can be overwhelming and confusing to find the right fit. Here you’ll find the industry’s top technology vendors and service providers, vetted by Nexus Labs. Take a look around and check back as we add more partners and publish category deep dives.

Show Me Around

Market Transformers

Market transformation partners are working on permanently changing the business cycle by aligning incentives. These partners focus on policy development, R&D, education, outreach, financial incentives, technical assistance, and network-building.

Venture Capital

Know a company that would be a good fit here? Let us know.

Institutional venture capital firms raise funds from investors and deploy them into startups that create innovative new technologies. Our VC partners are dedicated to the smart buildings space and are invested (literally) in getting across the chasm.

Workforce Builders

Talent and labor shortages will prevent the industry’s transition to decarbonized and digitized buildings–unless the workforce builders have something to say about it.

Certifications & Rating Systems

Know a company that would be a good fit here? Let us know.

Buyers use standardized certifications and rating systems to assess and score buildings on their intelligence, sustainability, and occupant experience. Then, buyers can track progress over time, compare buildings to each other, and prioritize investments when funds are limited.

Grid & Market Connectors

Buildings will interact with the electric grid and third-party markets to capture the value of their demand flexibility and carbon emissions reductions. The sellers in this category are the aggregators, virtual power plants, and marketplaces that facilitate these transactions.

The Vital Roles

CX Agent
Network Manager
Smart Building CT
MSI
Decarb Consultant

We talk a lot about the flashy new technology required for smart buildings. But we must always remember that when we're changing how things are done, people make it happen. Buyers recognize the importance of specialist roles—either on their staff or outsourced as members of their team of service providers. The Vital Roles are the service providers that buyers can’t do without.

Application Layer

FDD
FDD
Asset Management
Energy Management
Supervisory Control

Applications sit on top of the data layer and provide outcomes to users through mobile apps, web apps, or process-based applications. Buyers need persona-specific, contextually integrated applications that are designed around digitizing and automating human workflows.

Data Layer

IDL
IDL
IDL
Ontology

The data layer sits on top of the device and network layers as the data infrastructure for any smart building software application. The applications need an ontology to understand all the data they're consuming, including all the underlying devices and how they fit together into a system of systems.

Network Layer

To enable smart building technology, we need to allow remote access for administration, get data to the cloud, allow communication from the cloud to the device layer, and allow communication from device to device. The network layer should be converged, monitored, maintained, and have redundancy.

Device Layer

HVAC
Lighting
Access
Occupancy
IAQ

The Device Layer is where the digital meets the physical world. It’s where the digital device controllers live—each with their own unique inputs, outputs, and life safety functions. Our devices have immense teamwork potential, but they often sit in silos.

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Browse the industry's latest happenings

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🎧 #142: Living buildings and where technology fits

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"The building industry can be the first to show the world what it looks like for an industry from within itself to transform itself in line with a sustainable future."​

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Insights → Operations

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Today, we’re kicking off a new monthly Nexus Labs column called Insights → Operations. We’ll explore best practices with leading building owners and our fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) category partners. 

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🎧 #141: CRE Market Talk #2 with Mandi Wedin and Joe Gaspardone

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"So many organizations are selling ESG solutions, but very few have their own ESG statements, goals, or positions. If you don't want it, why would I?"

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February 2023 Member Digest [Nexus Pro]

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Welcome to the Nexus Pro member digest… a collection of recent highlights you shouldn’t miss. These digests are designed to save you time and allow you to catch up on the whole month. Then you can dive deeper wherever you’d like.

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🎧 #140: The value of occupancy data and reducing risks with leak detection

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"You can't just sell the data. It's got enormous value, but it needs to be manifested and taught in such a way that people can react to it." Episode 140 is a conversation with Bayron Lopez Pineda, Director of OT Operational Technology at Kilroy Realty and Mike Moran, Chief Markets Officer and Chief Risk & Sustainability Officer at MicroShare. We talked about Killroy Realty's Smart Buildings Program and got into the weeds on how they're thinking about occupancy data and leak detection, which are two topics we've discussed on the podcast, but not in detail.

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🎧 #139: Q1 2023 M&A Roundup with J³

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Episode 139 is a conversation with Joe Aamidor of Aamidor Consulting and Jeanne Casey of Nuveen. If you add me in, you get J³. This is the fourth installment of our M&A Roundup series, recorded in February 2023 all about what's happening in the marketplace right now. We unpacked the most interesting recent mergers and acquisitions in the smart buildings industry and dove into why, our reaction to them, and other trends they’re related to.

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