Inbiot, the Spanish company that already understood the importance of indoor air quality

Entrepreneurs.es

At inBiot, they specialize in monitoring indoor air quality. To this end, they develop smart solutions within the IoT sector, which they design, manufacture, and distribute themselves.

Xavier Aláez ( CEO), María Figols, and Sergio Díaz de Garayo are the founders of this startup, which was incorporated in 2018 after two years of research and development. Both Figols (vice president of the Spanish Baubiologie Institute) and Díaz de Garayo (founding partner of the Passivhaus building platform) have extensive professional experience in energy efficiency and optimization in buildings. Given their background, they already knew that sustainability in buildings is not always the best ally for air quality, and that the use of certain materials in construction—even in small quantities—can become alarming with prolonged exposure. 

With this in mind, inBiot was founded with the goal of creating solutions that intelligently monitor indoor air quality in buildings. The company’s added value lies in innovation, quality, and health, and based on these principles, it offers customized services and equipment. 

InBiot currently offers three different indoor air monitoring and control devices on the market. Among many other parameters, they can measure temperature, relative humidity, CO2, and, if desired, carbon monoxide. They also feature a virus indicator to provide real-time insights into ventilation needs. The display is as simple as a traffic light, with red indicating the need for ventilation.

The data collected by the sensors is stored in the cloud, and Inbiot’s experts analyze the results and, based on them, propose corrective measures. Customers can also request the installation of alarm systems or a centralized building management system. The company’s next step is to automate the service so that the facility manager can take over the management themselves. 

The company, based at the Navarra Business and Innovation Center (CEIN), is partly owned by Sodena, the investment arm of the Government of Navarra, and other private investors. 

Inbiot's Growth

Although inBiot’s solutions had already been on the Spanish market for some time, it was the outbreak of the coronavirus that radically turned its financial situation around. The health authorities’ repeated calls to keep spaces well-ventilated to prevent the spread of the virus meant that, overnight, the company saw its orders triple, far exceeding its growth expectations for 2020. The company, which started with three people, now has a staff of 12 professionals,

Among their clients are the education authorities of the Government of Navarre, who requested the installation of more than 700 devices in various schools. Hospitals, nursing homes, hotel chains, and large retail stores also fit their client profile. Where they won’t be entering, according to Díaz de Garayo, is the B2C model, where competition in this niche has become fierce, with low-cost solutions now available even on Amazon.

As for its roadmap, inBiot has no plans to enter international markets until at least next year. They believe they have growth potential because, even as the pandemic subsides, concerns about the quality of the air we breathe were already present—and have now, if anything, intensified—especially considering that we spend more than 90% of our time indoors and that what is commonly known as natural ventilation—that is, opening windows—is not always the best option.