The All-Seeing Eye of Real Estate. The Story of Prengi

There is a unique Energy Efficiency Day in the USA, that gave birth to the niche joke:

- What do appliances dress up as for Halloween?

- Energy vampires.

In fact, you can see energy vampires in action before the season of pumpkins and spooky parties. And these are not only ancient refrigerators, mobile phone chargers, unregulated electric heaters, or televisions in standby mode in our homes. Large real estate operators, powerful enterprises, extensive trade, and logistics networks that use various electrical equipment also suffer from energy vampires. Among them can be an uncleaned air conditioner, a water pump with an out-of-regulation sensor, faulty refrigeration units or ventilation systems. The energy draining equipment, often uncontrolled and invisible before the problem appears, becomes highly harmful to the budget and nature.

Fortunately, there was a company that was not afraid to fight energy vampires, not only with spells and an aspen stake, but with technology. Our new story is just about this.

The story of Prengi is a part of the series "The Cream of the Crop of Ukrainian Cleantech". It features 10 cleantech champions who received Climate Innovation Vouchers at a critical stage of their development. Climate Innovation Vouchers is one of the largest grant programs in Ukraine for innovators in green and climate-friendly technologies. It was initiated by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and funded by the European Union. Greencubator implements the program in Ukraine.

When Serhiy Shulga launched Shen company in 2006, the facility management service (complex real estate management) became a novelty in the Ukrainian market. At that time, Ukrainian businesses were starting to outsource cleaning, and here came a company that offered network maintenance, current repairs, security, cleaning, and other services in one package.

With a wide variety of equipment across thousands of facilities that needed timely and quality service, Shen's team first tried using off-the-shelf software. However, they quickly realized its functionality needed to be improved to cover all needs. And that's why they decided to write software together with Ukrainian programmers.

This is how the Prengi company started in the facility management market.

Initially, the software from Prengi was focused on acting as an assistant to facility managers: keeping a catalog of equipment, a calendar of its maintenance, and creating service requests in case of work violations.

Over time, another area came into view of the Prengi team: accounting of energy consumption by large network customers. Prengi knew that the majority of such networks operate without a complete passport of objects, and meter readings were taken manually, which led to errors and loss of valuable information. Their goal was to capture this array of data and summarize it on a computer or smartphone screen.

The company's ambitious intention coincided with the problem one of their largest customers, who were open to innovations, were facing. Ukrposhta, the largest postal operator in Ukraine, whose energy consumption indicators often exceeded all norms in many branches and distribution centers, wanted to track down and overcome these hidden energy consumers. For this, they turned to Prengi. It was a request to develop a new component of their software – an Efficiency Module to keep energy management records of tens of thousands of branches in one online service. At this stage, Prengi became acquainted with the Climate Innovation Vouchers grant program.

A grant for climate-friendly technology developers assisted Prengi in discovering a new market. Modern energy efficiency solutions are already helping giants in real estate, retail, and logistics save 10-15% of resources, primarily electricity, reduce CO2 emissions, and care for our planet.

According to Serhii Shulga, thanks to the Greencubator team, which implements in Ukraine the EBRD grant program made with the support of the EU – Climate Innovation Vouchers, Prengi realized its "green" potential. The company won a valuable grant, engaged an energy management expert, and implemented its intention in just five months. The new energy efficiency module was successfully integrated into existing real estate operational management solutions, bringing the desired savings and clarity to Ukrposhta.

"Before we met Greencubator, we generally had modest plans. We didn't expect that we would be able to move so quickly," recalls Bohdan Bayovskyi, executive director of Prengi at the time of the grant project. – "Greencubator introduced us to energy monitoring, energy audit, and energy management in general. We definitely could not implement such a large block as energy management without them. And when we received the Vouchers and developed the energy efficiency module, we were on such a rise that it seemed like we could conquer the whole world at once."

The world gladly opened up to Prengi. With the development of the energy efficiency and еnergy monitoring module, they gained many new customers who, like Ukrposhta, sought innovative solutions for energy consumption and loss reduction. Prengi automated the real estate management processes of one of the largest Ukrainian developers, Devision, significantly reducing their human and energy resource costs. As for the Forum business centers, the company managed to implement synchronization with the Ajax security system, which optimized the control of the cleanliness of the premises and became a point of pride.

"We programmed it so that if 20 people enter and leave the premises, the system notifies the cleaning personnel that it needs to be cleaned," CEO of Prengi says about the implemented solution. – "And if there were no people there, then the system simply does not inform, and the person does not spend their time cleaning according to the schedule, conserving water and other resources."

In the case of Prengi's cooperation with a large tobacco company, thanks to the energy efficiency module, it was possible to localize a hidden problem, stop significant water losses, and maybe even save human lives.

"The system showed excessive water consumption, but no source was visible. We began to figure things out and found that a pipe had burst under the enterprise, and all the water was flowing under it, – recalls Serhii Shulga. – If they didn't use our system, a huge lake could have formed there, washed away the foundation, and completely collapse the building. It would have caused huge losses, and people could have got hurt."

The problem was solved, and Prengi’s services have become indispensable where a detailed portrait of energy consumption and key points of loss are required. That is why developers Avalon and Zhitlobudinvest, shopping centers Aladdin and Pyramid, supermarket chains Kyshenya, Novus, and Velmart, residential complexes, facility management companies, and restaurant chains that seek to automate energy management and save began to work with them.

The invasion of russia in February 2022 found the CEO of Prengi in the United States. The Ukrainian market became stagnant, and most customers stopped paying. However, Prengi did not shut down their system or lay off a single person on the team; instead, they focused on foreign markets and opened a company in the United States.

But here, in search of the "American dream", it's time to learn from mistakes. Prengi rushed into battle, trying to impose their business vision on a new, unexplored market. Eventually, huge competition and meager income forced them to stop months of gruelling work and look for new solutions.

They immersed themselves in studying the market's needs, the mentality of their new audience, and the principles of making purchase decisions. They focused on large customers and became more attentive to them. These experienced slayers of energy vampires offered their first customers in the USA a year of free service. In exchange for this, they began to collect feedback, go deeper into the intricacies of the market, and quickly improve their functionality.

Today, in addition to the Energy Efficiency Module, the Prengi complex system includes the following modules:

Algorithms allow you to reduce the onboarding time of a new employee in the company – the system guides them through the processes and tells them what needs to be checked, corrected and what data to enter. Thanks to the module, the employee enters the company faster, makes fewer mistakes, and becomes more productive.
Inspection Management is for maintenance and cleanliness control.
Vendor Control fully automates work with contractors.
SmartDoc can parse a PDF file and insert data into the system.

And the Predictive Maintenance module made any electrical equipment talk about its needs. It turned out that with such a voice, this equipment would never become an energy vampire, eliminating the problem before it has a chance to begin. Timely serviced equipment produces fewer emissions, breaks down less often, and reduces energy consumption.This in turn provides the customer with significant savings, and helps them reach their sustainability indicator goals.

Having gained new experience, Serhii Shulga understood that under conditions of rapid market development, he must act just as quickly as his competitors to remain in this fast flow. Fuel was needed for such advancement, and it became the seed investment of the Ukrainian venture fund SMRK. In 2023, thanks to this $500,000 investment, Prengi set out to build a business model that would allow them to quickly expand the business in the U.S. and enter other markets.

Before that, Serhii had never attracted investments and relied only on himself, although there were investors who noticed Prengi’s potential even before the full-scale war. In the States, according to Serhii, 2-3 letters with similar investment interest arrive every day, but this does not mean that they are profitable. Here's what he says about it:

"When we were looking for investments, it was important for me to have people to deal with later. When you go to the second round, they will look not only at your business and product but also at who your partner is. If they are under sanctions or have a bad history in terms of other investments, then you will no longer attract new ones. But with all my ambitions as an owner, I want us to grow faster, to be more profitable, and for more customers to use our product. Therefore, I was glad that SMRK believed in us and that this investment took place. This is a huge responsibility for me, and I do everything to satisfy my partners."

Currently, Prengi is focusing on the American market but also expanding its presence in other countries. The company is negotiating with a huge developer in Malaysia and is working with one of Dubai's largest property management companies. CEO of Prengi spends extensive time in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, where sustainability is a priority. Here, they spend a lot of money not only on construction but also on searching for and implementing of the most innovative technologies.

"If you say you will save them money, they answer: 'Well, okay, we have a lot of money.' But if you say we will help you preserve the environment and create more comfortable living conditions for your people, their eyes light up. It is essential for them."

The high demand in these markets allows Prengi to implement many new ideas there. Each of these developments are carefully integrated into the Prengi energy efficiency system and take advantage of the latest modules and functions, which customers in Ukraine immediately put to use too.

Currently, Prengi is a system for the complete automation of sustainable real estate management processes, and here in Ukraine a solution like this doesn’t exist. Therefore, Ukrainian businesses looking for ways to save resources and grow faster than their competitors come to Prengi on their own. The company's only advertisement is successful cases of fighting energy vampires, which stimulate large businesses to follow the path of increased energy efficiency and sustainable development.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

«The Cream of the Crop of Ukrainian Cleantech» is a series of stories about 10 Ukrainian companies that received the Climate Innovation Vouchers grant at a key stage of their development. They've risen to prominence in Ukraine's cleantech sector in a short span. Climate Innovation Vouchers is one of the largest grant programs in Ukraine for innovators in green and climate-friendly technologies. It was initiated by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and funded by the European Union. NGO Greencubator implements the program in Ukraine.