SG building design firm launches with $2m

Digital Blue Foam (DBF), a Singapore-headquartered software-as-a-service (SaaS) building design startup, has launched its business after investing US$2 million in development over the last couple of years.

DBF co-founders Camiel Weijenberg (left) and Sayjel Vijay Patel / Photo credit: DBF

The startup is also in late-stage talks to close its series A funding, a round which is likely to close sometime during the first quarter of 2022, co-founder Sayjel Vijay Patel told Tech in Asia.

The funds will be used to scale up DBF’s footprint in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the US and to expand its team from 15 members to nearly 60 personnel by next year.

The DBF platform is a building design tool made for architects, planners, developers, and educators. It replaces legacy technologies commonly used in the sector with AI, software, and data to make design faster, better, and more cost-efficient.

Its offering provides real-time daylight autonomy scores, solar radiation simulation, instant shadow study, wind score, and sun path animation inputs that allow a designer to validate a design in real time. This can be done without the use of expensive and complex software while designing a building with net-zero carbon dioxide (Co2).

“The built environment is responsible for 40% of global Co2 emissions. Climate change is the existential challenge of this generation, and cities cannot continue to be designed as they still are. We need to adapt and change our ways, fast,” said DBF co-founder Camiel Weijenberg.

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The company expects to onboard around 50,000 paid users by the end of next year. Its product is priced from US$38 per month for individual users to enterprise teams and is accessible through a subscription. DBF had been seeing nearly 200 signups daily during its beta phase.