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Meeting the innovators
Digital innovation is set to change the way the sector operates, as seen at Housemark’s Evolve pitch day. Mark Smulian finds out what the future holds
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Kamil Brzezinski, co-founder of Antidote
Drones that paint houses? Digital checks on older residents’ safety? 3D-printed homes? The Evolve pitch day was a glimpse into the future of housing, as start-up companies competed to work with social landlords to develop their products.
Marriage of sectors
Run by Housemark with the help of consultancy L Marks, Evolve is based on one simple premise: landlords are unlikely to know what is happening in the depths of the tech sector, and tech start-ups do not know social housing in detail. This event brings the two together.
Ian Wright, Housemark’s assistant chief executive, came across L Marks’ work with the John Lewis Partnership on an ‘accelerator lab’, in which start-ups developed ideas to solve the retailer’s business issues.
“I asked L Marks if they’d be interested in working with an entire sector, rather than one company, as we had huge potential with 1,000 members,” he says.
Despite early caution about the Dragons’ Den-style event, at host RHP’s south London headquarters, the sector is being won over. “With a lot of pressure on social housing over value for money and efficiency, once we started to show them what the labs were about, a few lights started to come on,” continues Mr Wright.
In person
Read Curo executive director of corporate services Donna Baddeley’s first-hand account of the day
This enthusiasm enabled Housemark to crowdfund Evolve from the ‘pioneer’ landlords (see box: the pioneers). These housing associations and councils will get first pick of any successfully developed products that ultimately emerge. They will also have the chance to pick some very bright brains with a fresh perspective on the sector.
The six winners will work intensively for three months with the pioneers in an ‘accelerator lab’, again hosted by RHP. The landlord will offer business support, while the start-ups will also be assigned a mentor from one of the pioneer landlords. Once fine-tuned, products will go to the market, with the pioneers getting the first chance to use them.
“Once we started to show them what the labs were about, a few lights started to come on.”
Ian Wright, assistant chief executive, Housemark
Seventy-six initial applicants were whittled down to 26 for the pitch day, with each making a five-minute presentation to 35 judges, appointed by pioneers. With a few exceptions, the pitches focus on the pioneers’ priority areas: housebuilding, use of data, digital channel shift, repairs and maintenance, engaging residents, and vulnerable and older people. Judges’ responses range from the impressed to the intrigued as they hear the pitches, with occasional bafflement, too. But after a day of deliberation, some winners did emerge.
Source: Liteswitch Films
The pioneers
A number of housing associations and councils founded Evolve and will work with the winners to develop their products in the ‘acceleration lab’. They are:
- CHP
- Curo
- Flagship Group
- Genesis
- Hyde Group
- London Borough of Hackney
- London Borough of Camden
- Metropolitan
- MHS Homes
- Peabody
- RHP
- River Clyde Homes
- Salix Homes
- Torus
- Together
- Viridian
- WHG
Carol Hinvest, head of housing transformation, London Borough of Hackney; Sudip Trivedi, head of business intelligence, London Borough of Camden
The winners
These products will be developed with the pioneers in this winter’s accelerator lab
COHEAT
A platform for managing the retail and technical operation of district and communal heating networks, Coheat was a firm favourite with the judges. The technology will save landlords money by removing the need for a boiler in every home. Coheat offers a basic system that allows landlords to generate bills for residents in line with regulation. There is also a platform for managing customers’ accounts and a smart network of radiators that ‘talk’ to an energy centre to provide heat more efficiently.
ILLUMR
Illumr’s product takes data and looks for patterns that give users new knowledge about what is going on in their business.
Presenter Jason Lee says: “Computers are excellent at computing data but poor at looking for patterns in it; if we find patterns we could predict which property types will need planned maintenance and when.”
Humans could in theory do this, but Mr Lee says they will tend to find a hypothesis and make the data fit, while Illumr will find hidden insights in a mass of figures, turning big data about, say, building conditions into something usable to make maintenance decisions.
Some judges found this a little theoretical, but Illumr still makes the grade.
SKENARIOLABS
This Finnish product claims to uncover maintenance, energy, cost and renovation needs in any building without the need for a physical survey.
Presenter Hannu Nikupeteri says: “We collect scattered data and ‘see through walls’ to build a detailed picture of the performance of buildings and maintenance needs; we can digitise any portfolio in two days.”
Skenariolabs says it does this by combining all available data sources without asking anyone to specifically provide the information used.
Some judges felt this addressed a limited need, but enough were intrigued to back it.
PLENTIFIC
Plentific is an online marketplace in which residents who need home repairs post the job on a website to 80,000 subscribing tradespeople. It allows them to communicate and agree a price, with the website also handling payment.
Presenter Cem Savas says his company is “the only transactional marketplace in the home services sector” and having established itself among private residents now wants to develop a bespoke service for social housing.
Despite some concern from associations with direct labour organisations, Plentific joined the winners’ circle.
RAPID INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Software providers may not agree with presenter Gareth Edwards that their products are “slow to implement”, but his company aims to allow landlords to create software with, he says, few technical skills needed. Rapid Information Systems offers an open source builder for web applications, offline mobile applications and forms, which can be created without code.
The company wants to create a large housing management system with an emphasis on customer relations and contractor scheduling. Some judges felt this was reinventing the wheel but enough were keen for Rapid to win.
STANDARD ACCESS
Handing out keys securely can be an issue but Standard Access thinks it has the solution. Its virtual keys unlock doors with a “sonic handshake” from residents or tradespeople granted access for a limited period of time.
These ‘keys’ can be issued to tenants via cloud-based systems, removing the need for physical keys or cards.
Standard Access has mainly worked with hotels and wants to develop a social housing product. The quality of the idea sees it progress, despite some misgivings from landlords that seldom encounter the problem.
Almost there
A number of companies may not have won on the day, but several landlords want to investigate possible collaborations, meaning these products may well appear on the social housing landscape in the future
FIMATEC
Finland’s provider of 3D-printed concrete components for almost instant housing construction intrigued judges but they felt there were unanswered questions on cost, longevity of buildings and regulatory issues.
RUMBLETOOLS
Also from Finland, and equally futuristic, RumbleTools provides drones for painting, plastering and other building work at heights. The product sparked considerable interest but there were questions over Civil Aviation Authority rules on flying near buildings.
GOODLORD
Software that handles all the processes of signing up a tenant through electronic signatures, removing the need for multiple forms and appointments.
HOWZ
An electricity monitoring device that can understand the normal pattern of use in an older person’s home and spot inconsistencies that may signal the need for interventions or indicate troubling changes in behaviour patterns.
SWITCHEE
A smart thermostat that monitors and learns about occupants to optimise heating controls and reduce waste, bills and carbon footprints using a wi-fi network. It also reports back on property performance.
SHEPHERD
A cloud software system that uses sensors to profile how equipment such as boilers perform, reporting back anomalous events for repairs.
Contenders
Landlords were impressed by the rest of the companies but felt they required further development
COGNITIVE+
Software for quickly analysing key terms used in legal documents.
ANTIDOTE
An app that helps people who need repairs done by locating nearby providers using GPS.
NORDSAFETY
Mobile collation of health and safety data for the construction industry.
TEZEMO
A software system for repairs and maintenance workforce management.
ALLVR
Virtual reality software allowing potential occupants to ‘visit’ a building through headsets and fly-throughs.
HOMEPPL
A digital system to check the references of potential home occupiers.
SILVERTOWN
Property monitoring system to assess changes in conditions through sensors.
THINGK
A system for managing the ‘internet of things’.
INTENT TECHNOLOGIES
Collects data from devices and meters for procurement planning, widely used by social landlords in France.
CANARY
A passive monitoring tool to flag up concerns about older residents.
SENTIMOTO
Wearable technology for monitoring the well-being of older people.
BLOCK DOX
Real-time building energy and environmental data for landlords.
3D REPO
Computer-aided design and building information modelling system.
LUNA LIGHTS
Bed sensors that turn on lights when an older person gets up during the night.