Deepki is one of the largest SaaS companies in the world, specialising in real estate ESG. Here are Vincent Bryant, CEO and founder Deepki shares his insights on the challenges facing the real estate sector when it comes to improving its ESG credentials and his predictions for the next few months.
ESG software firm, Deepki, enjoyed a year of successive milestones and achieved a major impact in 2023, following significant client wins, contract expansions, strategic acquisitions, and global partnerships, cementing its market leadership position. Deepki is the only company in the world offering a fully populated ESG data intelligence platform to help commercial real estate investors, owners and managers improve the ESG performance of their real estate assets and play their part in tackling the climate change challenge.
The urgency of climate change has forced real estate players to put ESG at the heart of their wider company strategy, moving away from basic CSR initiatives, and directing capital flow to meaningful, strategic investments to improve environmental performance. Despite a challenging economic and geopolitical climate, investment in actions to mitigate the environmental impact of real estate is increasingly recognized as a necessity for owners and investors looking to protect the financial value of their portfolios, rather than an added expense. ESG is consequently emerging as a key criterion for companies looking to weather the economic storm in which the industry finds itself, with green buildings setting themselves apart from a sea of stranded assets. Consequently, Deepki saw increased demand for its ESG solutions, with companies turning to the market leader with 10 years' experience to accompany their transition to virtuous real estate, in a series of major client wins.
Deepki: Expanding its impact with new and existing clients
Deepki won more than 60 new clients in 2023, including Macquarie Asset Management and NEPI Rockcastle, and expanded the scope of its work with flagship clients such as Catella Real Estate AG, Icade, Realia, Swiss Life Asset Management, and the French Government’s Department of Real Estate, which recently renewed its partnership, which covers its entire portfolio of almost 200,000 buildings.
Strategic Partnerships and Acquisitions: Deepki’s position as the uncontested market leader has also been supported by strategic acquisitions and global partnerships. In May, Deepki acquired Nooco, a business that deals with embodied carbon, through the measurement and optimization of the carbon footprint of building construction and renovation projects, across the building’s entire life cycle. To dramatically accelerate growth in the US and APAC markets, it also unveiled a unique strategic global partnership with CBRE Property Management, the global leader in commercial real estate services and investments.
In October, Deepki became the only ESG SaaS company to join the RealAssetX innovation lab powered by PGIM Real Estate, which focuses on some of the most pressing ESG topics for commercial real estate today by harnessing the power of sustainable technology, artificial intelligence and deep tech.
Key Hires to Drive Growth: Deepki continues to strengthen its leadership position and invest in expertise to support growth and client delivery, with 190 new hires in 2023. Key appointments included renowned industry expert Sigrid Duhamel as an independent member and Chairwoman of the Strategic Committee, as well as Emmanuelle Nello as Chief People Officer, Olivier Pin as Chief Product Officer, and Colin Brown as VP UK & Ireland - Head of Global Sales, in order to support the structuration of the company’s workforce, drive the company’s innovation and ramp up commercial operations, respectively. Around 100 recruitments are planned for 2024, which will be instrumental in achieving Deepki’s ambitious growth plans for the next 12 months.
Cutting-edge Innovation Powered by Data Intelligence
In 2023, Deepki continued its investment in machine learning and artificial intelligence in order to provide more comprehensive analysis of the financial and ESG performance of its clients’ real estate portfolios. Thanks to enhanced archetypes and data models, evolved climate risk analysis models and AI, users are able to limit risk and secure the value of their assets at a more granular level. Asset managers also benefit from a brand-new reporting module, allowing them to easily and accurately meet reporting obligations and share their performance with their investors.
Deepki also released the first annual update of its ESG Index, the first publicly available European benchmark measuring the sector’s ESG performance using real data, originally published in 2022, adding new metrics, and providing insight into the evolution of the industry’s environmental performance from one year to another.
Over the next 12 months, Deepki will continue enabling the market to make better-informed decisions, - ultimately maximising the value of their portfolios. Companies will be able to rely on a powerful investment plan capability, helping them to select refurbishment actions, simulate different scenarios, anticipate the impact on their carbon trajectories and mitigate risk. Managers will be able to easily meet reporting requirements thanks to a new, customisable report builder and specific framework features.
Outlook for 2024
Looking ahead to 2024, Deepki anticipates less volatile market conditions, with premium assets with good ESG performance likely to be less impacted by inflation, rising interest rates and the resulting effect on their liquidity. In contrast, assets with poor ESG characteristics are likely to see a significant decrease in value. Additionally, Deepki foresees a reduction in investment in building renovations in 2024. Despite these challenges, demand for Deepki's core business, aiding clients in understanding their portfolios’ performance, protecting their asset value and attractiveness to tenants, and gaining access to capital, especially debt, is set to continue growing.
Vincent Bryant, CEO and co-founder of Deepki, affirms:
“In 2023, Deepki empowered visionary real estate players to take their ESG performance into their own hands, achieving excellent growth despite challenging conditions in the sector. This was largely driven by strong commercial expansion and key partnerships, affirming the market's confidence in our product and strategy, as well as its commitment to achieving net zero. We have also grown through the acquisition of Nooco, and the reinforcement of our team with exceptional talent.
2024 is shaping up to be a critical year for the real estate sector, where ESG criteria will increasingly influence property valuation. Many of our clients are already seeing the impact of brown discounting, with access to capital becoming increasingly difficult where ESG performance falls short. Many are establishing strategies to address these issues, recognising the need for urgency. Deepki is singularly equipped to support this transition, supporting real estate players in their journey to net zero.”
Comments from Deepki’s partners and clients
Emma Buckland, Global President, Property Management at CBRE:
“Deepki is a leading sustainability data intelligence platform for real estate that provides deep insights that will enable our teams to take informed actions at the building level. This will help us embed sustainability best practices – and add real value – at properties we manage around the world.”
Magdalena Gibney, Group Head of Sustainability at NEPI Rockcastle:
“We value our partnership with Deepki, which enables us to streamline data collection as well as measure emissions, climate change risks and enhance our sustainability efforts across our expansive asset portfolio in nine countries. Their robust data analytics and extensive dataset is instrumental in shaping our sustainability strategy.”
Ignacio Fernandez Rodriguez, Head of Asset Management at Realia:
"Partnering with Deepki has significantly advanced Realia's sustainability agenda. Their cutting-edge SaaS solution enhances our ability to manage and improve the environmental footprint of our real estate portfolio. Through Deepki's analytics, we gain crucial insights into energy efficiency and sustainability performance, which are vital for our ongoing commitment to building eco-friendly and responsible living spaces. This partnership marks a key step in our strategic journey to redefine sustainable development in real estate."
Andreas Wesner, Managing Director and Spokesperson of Catella Real Estate AG and Michael Fink, Managing Director of Catella Residential Investment Management:
“With Deepki’s support, we have taken a decisive step towards a holistic understanding of our real estate portfolio’s environmental performance. By integrating ESG data analysis in our decision-making processes, we not only streamline our ESG performance but also enhance our capacity to identify potential risks and opportunities. This approach is instrumental in ensuring the long-term financial success of our portfolios, while also making a positive impact on the environment and effectively tackling social challenges.”
About Deepki
Founded in 2014, Deepki has developed a SaaS solution that uses data intelligence to guide real estate players in their net zero transition. The solution leverages customer data to improve assets’ ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) performance and maximize asset value. Deepki operates in 60 countries, with over 400 team members across offices in Paris, London, Berlin, Milan and Madrid. The company serves clients including Generali Real Estate, SwissLife Asset Managers and the French government, helping to make their real estate assets more sustainable at scale. Deepki now monitors over 1.5 million assets around the world, helping its customers to align with the Paris Agreement by reducing their CO? emissions by 5% each year.
In March 2022 Deepki raised €150 million in a Series C funding round which was jointly led by Highland Europe and One Peak Partners. Other investors include Bpifrance, through their Large Venture fund and Revaia. Since then, Deepki has carried out strategic acquisitions including that of its principal UK-based competitor, Fabriq, and complementary SaaS solution, Nooco.
