Aiforsite turned six in April!
On April 7, 2016, Kari Hirvijärvi signed the company’s memorandum of association. That’s where the story of Aiforsite began. Hirvijärvi founded his company alone. Raimo Vuopionperä, who is currently piloting Bamomas, a battery management system, initially helped him commercialise IoT solutions.
“The name of the company was first Bliot Oy. The name consisted of Swedish and English puns, where “bli” or “become something” is Swedish and “IoT” is the English abbreviation for “Internet of things”. Since then, with the clarification of the business idea, the company’s name has changed to the current Aiforsite. The origin of the name is in English and means “Artificial Intelligence for the construction site,” says Kari Hirvijärvi.
By bus to the construction site to drill
Six years is a good time perspective to see what development path we have taken. In the company’s early days, Aiforsite’s team developed the first versions of AIC software, commercialised services, and launched a digital engineer service concept.
In those days, it was like the CEO gathered ten pages of presentation material and marched to sell the idea to potential customers. He then returned home to pick up a Hilti drill and went to the first construction site by bus to fly the drone and drill holes in the concrete to install the condition sensors.
“I had a styrofoam box on the bus bench full of tools and sensors to be installed on-site. So I wondered how exciting and varied my job role was. I pitched to investors in the morning, and I drilled holes in the concrete in the afternoon, ”Hirvijärvi recalls.
A couple of trips to the client’s sites were folded up by bike, but it is a minor detail. There was an apparent demand for our service, and the customers were delighted.
The starting point – scalable IoT solutions for the construction and real estate
Six years ago, there were already a lot of sensor manufacturers and different software on the market, but not a ready-made solution that the construction company could have bought right away. Aiforsite saw a niche in the market and began developing a solution.
The business got off to a good start. A month after the company was founded, Aiforsite gained its first customers, and since then, the growth curve has been showing up all the time.
Aiforsite’s first solutions included real-time and wireless humidity and temperature measurement. In a pilot project, remote monitoring of building automation was delivered to Tallinn. Indeed, condition monitoring has become part of the current all-in-one solution for improving productivity.
PropTech changed to ConTech, focusing on improving productivity
The original business idea of “scalable IoT solutions for the construction and real estate industry” has evolved over the years. During refining a business idea, the focus has shifted to construction and improving productivity on the site. PropTech changed to ConTech.
Technically, however, the core architecture of the offering has remained the same. In the beginning, we talked about single scalable IoT solutions, and today they are modules integrated into the Aiforsite system.
The company’s offering has been refined into an all-in-one solution for improving productivity. The real-time snapshot and productivity analytics help site managers stay on schedule and streamline day-to-day management.
The next image tells our growth story from a technical perspective. The amount of measurement events from the various condition monitoring and positioning data sensors has increased significantly over the six years. There is an impressive amount of data fuel for artificial intelligence solutions that we are purposefully developing.
An excellent team is a key
“Every company’s growth journey starts somewhere and ends up somewhere. Let’s see where we are again in six years. When you start something small on your own, you can better understand the importance and impact that all the people involved now and in the past have on the team. A big thank you to everyone! ” underlines Hirvijärvi.
Today, Aiforsite employs 27 professionals in construction, artificial intelligence and software development. We apply digital technology to make the construction site more efficient. We know what the everyday life of site management is like, and our goal is to make it easier.
Since day one, there has been a desire in our DNA to genuinely do things and not expect someone to do them for us. We get our hands dirty and take care of the job. We ensure that our customers receive the promised financial and schedule benefits.
Tuomas Lackman, responsible for developing artificial intelligence at Aiforsite, praises the company’s operating culture: “The team has a distinct talent to take a new direction if there is a reason. We are iterating products and services on a fast-paced cycle with our customers and continue to develop what is in customer demand. ”
Strong expertise and long-term members in the executive team
Olli Seppänen, Professor at Aalto University’s Department of Civil Engineering, became Aiforsite’s investor and Chairman of the Board in August 2016. A year later, Sami Kalliokoski, Chief Technology Officer, joined the team to take product development to a new level.
Service Director Jerkko Koskinen has commercialised the service process and built a service team for four years. Pyry Virrantaus took over the operational responsibility for sales three years ago. Recently, the management team was strengthened with additional expertise with the addition of Iana Vesa, Marketing Manager, and Minna Gustavsson, CFO.
Aiming for growth in the domestic and international markets
We are looking for solid growth in the domestic market in Finland, and we strive to expand our global business. Last year’s funding round and our strengthened development team have ensured a substantial investment in product development and further development of the service concept. World, we are ready!
We have already helped numerous construction projects streamline their production processes. If you want to know how, book a short discussion with our expert and see for yourself how Aiforsite’s solution works.
