Sefaira
American software company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sefaira is a software company that specializes in green building design software.[1] In 2011, Sefaira won the Green Building Innovation of the Year award at London's Ecobuild.[2][3][4] The company was founded in 2009.[5]
Mads Jensen
 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Building Design Software |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Founders | Peter Krebs Mads Jensen |
| Headquarters | London, New York |
Key people | Andrew Corney Peter Krebs Hugh McEvoy Hari Natarajan |
| Products | Sefaira Architecture Sefaira Systems |
Number of employees | 50 |
| Parent | Trimble Inc. |
| Website | http://www.sefaira.com/ |
On February 8, 2016, Trimble Inc. announced the acquisition of Sefaira Ltd. Sefaira will join SketchUp in the Trimble Architecture & Design division, part of Trimble Buildings.[6][7][8][9]
History
Sefaira was founded in 2009 by Peter Krebs and Mads Jensen to provide the building industry with software to design and create green buildings.[5] They derived the name Sefairia from the Greek word sefra, meaning sphere, symbolizing the earth and the company's focus.[10]
In 2009, Sefaira won the INSEAD Business Venture Competition, and shortly after Sefaira was incorporated in London, UK, with offices opening in New York, US, shortly thereafter.[5][11]
In 2011, the cloud-based analysis platform was voted the most promising new technology at the London Ecobuild.[12]
In April 2012, the company announced that it had received $10.8 million in Series A funding from Braemar Energy Ventures in partnership with Amsterdam-based Chrysalix SET and UK-based Hermes GPE.,[2][13][14] and in July 2012, the company announced the public launch of the Sefaira web application.[15]
Products
The company's primary product is Sefaira, a web-based performance analysis platform specifically built for conceptual design.[16] Sefaira is targeted towards architects, engineers, consultants and building designers. It performs whole-building physics-based analysis of water, carbon and renewable energy potential allowing designers and architects to explore design options.[1][16][17] The software includes support for SketchUp. In 2013, Sefaira released a new plugin for SketchUp that connects energy analysis and daylight to building design.[18] In 2014, Sefaira released a new plugin for Autodesk Revit that connects energy analysis and daylight to building design.[19] In 2015, Sefaira released Sefaira Systems, a product designed for HVAC designers to do system sizing and energy analysis using SketchUp and Revit models.[20] In 2020, Trimble released SketchUp Studio 2020, whose file format can be used by Sefaira.[21]
Awards
- 2009 – INSEAD Business Venture Competition – Winner[11]
- 2011 – Green Building Innovation of the Year – Winner[2]
- 2012 – Going Green - Global Top 200 Private Companies[22]
- 2013 – Red Herring 2013 Top 100 Global[23]
- 2013 – Sustainability Leaders Award – 2013 Winner for best Software Innovation[24]
- 2013 & 2014 – Global Cleantech 100 award[25][26]
- 2014 – Architizer A+ Awards – Best App – Jury's Winner[27]
- 2015 – Edison Awards – Bronze – for Energy Management/Conservation Category[28]
- 2015 – Dutch Green Building Council – Duurzaame Innovation (Sustainability Innovation) Winner[29]
- 2015 – Sefaira is named in the 2015 Global Cleantech 100 for a third year in a row[30]
- 2019 – The PBD Performance Based Design approach using Sefaira and SketchUp featured in Design Process chapter of MEEB 13th Edition (Mechanical and Electrical Equipment for Buildings)[31]
- 2020 – Sefaira+SketchUp design wins ICF Magazine Small Residence project of the year award[32]
- 2022 – Project Stasio: Winter 2022 Challenge-Simple Box Modeling Overall Winner[33]