Abu Dhabi-based cleantech startup FortyGuard aims to make cities in the Middle East and around the world cooler. Founded in 2020 by Jay Sadiq, the startup uses AI and machine learning to provide data, insights, and visualizations to identify the exact areas where temperatures are rising and reduce heat in these locations. We propose ways to reduce the impact of
Sadiq, a serial entrepreneur, wanted to move away from the types of startups popular in the region, such as fintech and e-commerce, and focus on creating an innovative platform from scratch that could be exported globally. He first came up with a solution to climate change when he visited Los Angeles in 2019 and saw firsthand the city being painted with white pigment for cooling. “I was very intrigued,” Jay Sadiq, founder and CEO of FortyGuard, tells his StartupScene. “I thought this was great. How can we make Dubai cooler?”
Cooling cities was also a personal problem he wanted to solve, as he had been diagnosed with asthma as a child. “Heat was one of the sources of challenges that limited him from spending extended periods of time outdoors,” he says.
FortyGuard, named after the ozone layer, was founded primarily to be used by governments and the private sector. Since its launch, the startup has worked with leading companies such as Masdar City and Emirates Global Aluminum, and is currently preparing to bring its solution to Miami, Florida as part of its global expansion strategy.
find hotspots
Although FortyGuard is a young startup, it had to pivot quickly after launching to stay relevant and maintain investor interest. His FortyGuard, which started as a materials science company, originally developed climate-smart asphalt to reduce heat output on roads and other surfaces. The product was successful, but the large number of machines required made it difficult to scale.
But it was an investor question that changed FortiGuard's direction. When asked where the asphalt would be used, Sadiq replied, “Everywhere.” But “everywhere” was impossible, since the temperature is not the same in every city. This led Sadiq to consider creating a tool that would provide data and visualize hotspots in detail.
“Then we decided to solve this problem of cooling cities,” Sadiq says. “We needed to build a measurement tool, so we could harness the power of AI and machine learning to understand from an analytical perspective why a place is hot, what impact it has on energy demand, and Of course we understood things like carbon emissions, operationally as well. But more importantly, what is the impact on human thermal comfort?”
FortyGuard has been able to cater to a wide range of business sectors, including urban planners, engineers, and construction companies, by providing data, analysis, and recommendations to cool hot regions. “We can tell you exactly what needs to be done to cool the city, from a materiality perspective, from a design perspective, from an operational perspective,” he says. “And we provide all of the data, visualization, analysis and insight into one unified operating system, which he calls TOS (Thermal Operating System).”
Why is it important?
It's getting hotter every year. Last year was the warmest year on record since 1850, according to the Copernicus Climate Bureau (C3S), and the first year in which temperatures were more than 1 degree Celsius warmer throughout the day than in pre-industrial times.
As greenhouse gases, from methane to carbon dioxide, continue to be released into the Earth's atmosphere, the Earth is expected to get warmer every year, especially in urban areas than in rural areas. This is because cities generally have a lot of concrete and few trees that can trap heat. “2023 was the hottest year compared to all previous years,” he says. “So the only prediction you and I can make is, we know how hot it is now, but next year will be even hotter. And next year will be even hotter.”
Through its SaaS platform, Sadiq aims to make cities cooler, smarter, and more sustainable. Operating on a subscription model, businesses and organizations can extract relevant data and insert it into their own applications and platforms, enabling them to not only make informed decisions but also turn data into actionable insights. You can also change it.
“So if you're building a navigation tool and you want your clients to have the freedom to figure out the coolest route instead of the shortest route, you can do that,” Sadiq explains. “If the government is trying to figure out the red zones in the city to reduce the risk of heatwaves and where to build hospitals and kindergartens, it can be done. If you want to promote it, you can. We provide our users with an API that gives them the freedom to use our analytics and data in their own applications and environments.”
Globalization
With support from Abu Dhabi's Hub71 technology ecosystem, FortyGuard joined Techstars Miami in March to bring its solutions to the US market.
Sadiq is looking to connect with like-minded investors, customers and business partners, as Miami is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to rising sea levels and rising temperatures. But the United States is just the first step in Mr. Sadiq's ambitious expansion strategy. He hopes to take FortyGuard to Europe, Asia and Africa in the near future. After all, climate change is a global issue that affects every region of the world.
A global issue that affects every region of the world. “The United States is just one stage among many others that FortiGuard will encounter,” he says. “Next is Canada, the European market, then Asia and, of course, very importantly the African market, covering the whole world and solving global warming.”
Despite his ambitions to take startups global, he wants the region to become a hub for innovation, talent and funding, something that most startups in the Middle East struggle to do. “We know we have quite a few operators in terms of accelerators, incubators, a few VCs, but that's not enough,” he says. “We're in this early on, which is good, but before we start losing a lot of innovative companies, early-stage startups, founders, who want to build something in this region. , I think a lot needs to be done.”
But for now, Sadiq wants to set an example in building local startups for the world. “My ambition has always been to build technology that can be exported from this region, this Arab world, and the creative minds and resources that are here to other parts of the world,” he says. “And we believe that's what we're doing at FortyGuard.”