A smart home that can welcome residents back after a day of work, automatically adjusting the climate and already knowing which lights to turn on. But that's not all: the smart home of the future optimizes energy consumption, avoiding waste and increased consumption on the bill, especially in the summertime when mugginess often leads to not-so-smart use of air conditioners. This is the winning idea of Homsai, an Italian startup that takes home automation to a new level through the ability to better manage energy resources and make money by selling the surplus to energy suppliers.
Homsai's project, which is currently in beta phase, enabled it to win the first prize of the Energy Innovation Cup, an initiative promoted by Enegan, an energy partner specializing in guiding companies toward a green transition, and IAG, a leading Italian venture capital group that aims to valorize young entrepreneurs who propose a radical development of technological progress, putting them in contact with large companies and providing them with the tools to be able to increase their potential.
Homsai, as well as the more than 130 startups involved, operates in Energy & Cleantech, a sector that has been experiencing exponential growth in recent years. More and more companies, in fact, are focusing on developing clean and efficient energy solutions, also revolutionizing the way they are distributed, stored and consumed.
It is precisely energy consumption efficiency that is at the heart of Homsai, which leverages artificial intelligence to make homes truly smart, optimizing consumption and saving on operating costs. Homsai connects different systems, such as photovoltaic systems or heat pumps, but, thanks to integration protocols, monitoring and controlling consumption becomes simple and intuitive via the app.
The Energy Innovation Cup was designed to give space to startups that propose cutting-edge ideas and projects such as Homsai that can contribute to the energy transition. Participating startups approached this challenge creatively, presenting innovative solutions: from artificial intelligence applied to energy efficiency to platforms that promote corporate sustainability without lapsing into greenwashing, via proposals that revolutionize the energy harvesting sector and the transportation of unconventional renewable energy.
Through a rigorous selection and evaluation process by a team of Enegan managers and collaborators, the finalist startups were chosen to present their projects during the closing event, held at Nana Bianca, an inspiring Florentine startup studio where startups, freelancers and companies meet to find the ideas of tomorrow.
The winner of the first edition, Homsai, will have the opportunity to collaborate with Enegan to implement concrete projects and bring new solutions in the green economy. The event also fostered interaction and connection between the startups, Enegan, the Tuscan innovation ecosystem and IAG network investors from all over Italy, opening the doors to future partnerships and creating a favorable environment for the development of clean technologies, as Carlo Tassi, IAG President, explains: "Our mission is to connect the most innovative realities of the Italian scene - and not only - with large successful companies, in order to achieve synergies that create value for both realities and for the whole sector. We are particularly proud of this initiative with Enegan, because although awareness of the energy transition is growing, there is still plenty of room for improvement and innovation."
In fact, the transition to a low-impact future is made possible through the joint efforts of key players such as Enegan, IAG and the brilliant entrepreneurial minds that are shaping the cleantech industry, laying the foundations for the smart energy management of tomorrow, as Walter Bucelli, Enegan General Manager, explains, "These startups demonstrate the concrete possibility of a sustainable future in a context of economic growth and lay the foundations for a green economy starting with the optimal management of energy resources. Our journey, which began in 2010 just when we were a startup like Homsai, has led us in just a few years to be one of the leading players in the green energy sector; now our ambition is to be a mentor for Homsai and, together, to implement projects that will give even more impetus to the green turn of recent years. We thank IAG and all the startups that participated in this wonderful initiative, with the hope that there will be more and more opportunities to stimulate and reward young entrepreneurs whose mission is a better and more sustainable world."