A European PropTech View with Fredrik Tunberg, Sally R

Welcome back to ‘A European PropTech View, by Dilan Omari-Clark’ our Q&A focused on European PropTech’s.

Our Q&A series is an opportunity for our European team, headed up by Dilan Omari-Clark to discuss all things PropTech, Start-ups, and Career with different founders from across the continent. Each week we will ask PropTech innovators burning questions and quiz them about their product, we hope you find it insightful and enjoy getting to know the founders as much as we have.

This week we have been in touch with Fredrik Tunberg, CEO at Sally R.

Sally R is a Swedish Proptech startup bringing down space technology in order to make buildings safer, in regards to indoor air quality. The software also provides substantial energy savings by making existing ventilation systems intelligent.

How did you find yourself working in the PropTech sector?

It kind of happened by mistake, but I quickly got hooked on the overall challenge to make property intelligent and sustainable. It’s such a massive, and important industry, and the undergoing change concerning indoor air quality and sustainability are global concerns.

At what point did you realise there was a gap in the market, and you had the product for it?

Before Sally R existed, we could easily see the fundamental problem of having buildings all over the world being dependent on the ever increasing polluted outside air. We set off inventing technology to make buildings more resilient and quickly found out that the energy-saving aspect of our technology was equally vital.

What are the challenges in PropTech for your company?

PropTech is a challenge in itself as the majority of PropTech solutions invented during the last couple of years rely on being able to scale, meaning that it must be implemented in hundreds of buildings before the startup makes any money. Buildings have traditionally, and too long, been treated as unique objects with their own solutions. But with new tech such as IoT and 5G being introduced, we can implement the exact same solution to thousands of buildings instantly. That’s when things starting to be interesting for real.

What are the long-term plans for Sally R?

We’ve established ourselves in Scandinavia during the last couple of years and we will now focus on entering new markets in Europe and elsewhere. Our platform allows us to implement the solution to anywhere in the world, without us physically being present.

Future of PropTech, what do you think is going to be important this year?

The pandemic is finally making property owners, tenants and everyone else to think about indoor air quality. I believe we’re already seeing a massive movement, where people expect to know what they’re breathing and this calls for large investments in sensor technology as well as optimization software such as Sally R.

What advice would you give to someone looking to enter the PropTech industry?

Real Estate is everywhere, but so far behind from where it needs to be, in terms of safety and sustainability. This is the industry if you quickly want to have an impact on how we live our lives and the future of this planet.