VAELLA, a new technology company developing an AI operator for buildings and public infrastructure, has launched as an independent spinout from KONE.
VAELLA delivers real-time situational awareness and predictive intelligence to help support building operators and facility managers shift away from ineffectual reactive monitoring.
It helps operators of densely populated, high-footfall environments – including transport hubs, airports, stadiums and large commercial buildings – anticipate and manage disruption, maintain flow and strengthen resilience.
VAELLA was originally created within the technology and innovation unit at KONE, and addressed a growing challenge facing cities and infrastructure operators – that of public environments becoming more interconnected, dynamic and vulnerable to disruption. The legacy systems used to manage them, however, remain fragmented and reactive.
Control rooms have often relied on disconnected inputs from cameras, sensors, access systems, equipment monitoring and building infrastructure.
Although operators have access to more data volume, what they require is a unified operational picture that helps teams understand where pressure is building, how disruption may propagate and what decisions are needed in real time.
That’s where VAELLA steps in and is designed to operate more like an extended, AI-powered operational team working alongside existing staff, across all functions of the facility.
“Facility operators are not short of data. The challenge is that it’s scattered across too many systems and still requires people to interpret what matters in real time,” VAELLA chief commercial officer (COO) and co-founder Ulla Tikkanen says.
VAELLA says that its new platform combines sensor data, operational systems and predictive intelligence into a unified real-time operational view.
“Consider it like having an additional equivalent of your best facility manager, your most experienced security supervisor, your smartest energy analyst and your most reliable accessibility coordinator, and having all of them working together, in real time, around the clock, on every floor and in every corridor of your facility at once,” Tikkanen adds.
VAELLA’s platform could be particularly useful in facilities such as airports, stadiums, shopping centres, university campuses and civic spaces, which require real-time and simultaneous monitoring of multiple areas within them.
Initial pilots and validation work of the new software have already been conducted in Helsinki and Brussels.
Tested applications included crowd build-up detection, passenger incident response, accessibility disruption management, demand-aware station operations and adaptive energy management. Additionally, the technology has been used to identify ways to save energy at the station and reduce unnecessary visits by security teams by using real-time data.
“Transport hubs and metro stations, for example, can experience sudden surges in passenger volumes following concerts, sporting events or service disruptions, creating safety risks in busy transit areas,” VAELLA CEO and co-founder Fabien Fédy says.
“According to one pilot customer, overcrowding contributes to nearly 30 percent of operational incidents. By identifying congestion patterns in real time, operators can respond earlier, increase train frequency, redirect passenger flows or adjust escalator directions before situations worsen. Real-time occupancy insights can also help optimise lighting, ventilation and other building systems dynamically, with some pilot environments identifying potential energy savings of up to 20 percent.”
KONE says that the decision to back VAELLA as a spinout is a deliberate initiative to give the venture the independence and autonomy it requires to scale..
“KONE has spent decades understanding how people move through buildings and cities. The natural extension of that is understanding how equipment and the spaces around it behave as living systems: observing patterns, seeing where pressure accumulates, and anticipating and responding in the moments before something goes wrong,” KONE chief innovation officer Amy Chen said. “VAELLA, our first-ever spinout, is addressing that challenge with a completely new approach designed for the operational realities of crowded public environments.”
Read more: Elevating building intelligence: How KONE’S digital services are transforming facilities management
