By Mads Jensen, CEO Sefaira

In 2009, Peter Krebs and I founded Sefaira with a mission to democratize the design of sustainable and high-performing buildings. From day 1, we aspired to transform the building design process, and we took an uncompromising approach as we sought to push the boundaries of what technology could accomplish for building designers. In particular, we wanted to empower architects with the most sophisticated cloud computing power, in order to deliver something that had never before been possible – real-time performance analysis (principally energy and daylight) of 3D building models. 

In the building design community, we found enthusiastic support for our mission, and this is what propelled us forward as we built and released successive versions of our Sefaira software. It enabled us to build a great team that in turn created amazing software which today is used by more than 500 leading architecture and engineering firms across more than 40 countries. According to the American Institute of Architects, Sefaira is now the most widely used performance analysis tool by architects across the US.

We are proud of the result we have achieved, and thankful to our customers and partners who have championed us along the way. We couldn’t have done this without you.

Today we are beginning a new phase of our journey. We are excited to announce that – as of today – Sefaira has been acquired by Trimble, and going forward we will be part of Trimble’s SketchUp group.

At Sefaira, we have always seen SketchUp as a big source of inspiration for how we wanted to build software. A powerful design tool that “gets out of the way” and lets designers exercise all their creative powers. This is how we wanted to build Sefaira, and thus it was natural for us to develop a partnership with Trimble following their acquisition of SketchUp from Google in 2012.

Since then, Trimble has continued to invest significantly in the buildings space, creating many new technologies and investing aggressively to create a strong portfolio of offerings across the “Design - Build – Operate” continuum. In joining Trimble, we are now becoming part of an already large and rapidly growing family that has become a force to be reckoned with in the construction industry, and we are excited about the things we can build together.

Importantly, with Trimble and SketchUp, we are expanding Sefaira’s reach so that we can now bring performance-based design to designers everywhere.  

Although we are part of a new family, our mission continues unchanged. We are as committed as ever to deliver powerful software and outstanding customer support to all of you. Our goal continues to be making the implementation of performance-based design as easy as possible. And expect to see even closer integration with SketchUp, alongside our commitment to continued support of Revit.

Finally, a word of thanks to customers, partners and investors. You have all supported us on our journey so far, and what we have accomplished wouldn't have been possible without you. Our team is looking forward to continuing on this journey with you and our new friends at SketchUp and Trimble. We are proud of what we have achieved to date. Thank you all for being a part of it!

And now, let’s get ready for the next chapter in the transformation of the building design process.

Onwards!

You can read more about the transaction and about Trimble Buildings on our website http://sefaira.com.