Fast-growing Detroit startup KODE Labs has clients around the world

Brothers Edi Demay and Etrit Demay were just boys in 1999 when they fled war-torn Kosovo with their parents and settled in metro Detroit.

Now in their 30s, they are co-founders of KODE Labs, a fast-growing Detroit startup that creates an operating system for commercial buildings. The company’s clients include several well-known local companies, as well as companies from as far away as Australia and the brothers’ native Kosovo.

The company was founded in 2017, and its building automation software works by collecting data from a wide range of smart building equipment and sensors—from HVAC control systems to elevator monitors and occupancy meters—and neatly presenting it all for real-world monitoring. time. and exploitation.

KODE’s software is cloud based, which is different from traditional building monitoring software which involves local servers in each building.

“This is a space that’s really lacking in innovation,” said Jay Farner, a former executive at Rocket Companies and an investor in KODE Labs. “Their product is transformative and can really make a difference for these property managers.”

KODE Labs is headquartered in downtown Detroit and has approximately 200 employees in offices in four countries.

About 140 employees are based in Kosovo, where the company’s third co-founder, 34-year-old Gentrit Godjani, lives.

According to the brothers, KODE Labs is doubling its business every year, and its client list includes Ford Motor Co., Michigan Medicine, Detroit-based Bedrock, Empire State Building, and TJX Cos., which is the parent company of TJ Maxx stores and Marshalls.

Last month, the company announced a new contract worth more than $14 million to build 150 buildings in and around D.C. operated by the U.S. General Services Administration.

Internationally, KODE has clients in Canada, the UK, South Africa, Australia, Ireland and Kosovo.

In an interview this month at their Washington Boulevard headquarters, the brothers explained how the name KODE comes from a combination of the words “Kosovo” and “Detroit.”

Helping systems communicate with each other

Edi Demay said KODE operates as a software-as-a-service company and has yet to lose any clients or buildings. He described their software as “the surface layer that brings all the different systems and software together into a single pane of glass… traditionally (in the industry) there have been a lot of proprietary systems that don’t talk to each other.” another.”

He added: “What Tesla did for the auto industry – using software – is the same thing we do for the built environment, using software. This is the closest and best example I can give you.”

Edie, 39, has been in the Detroit startup scene for some time. He was co-founder Rocket Fiber, an internet service backed by Dan Gilbert that launched in 2015 with then-incredible speeds of 1 gigabit per second and beyond. was acquired and renamed Everstream in 2020. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Before joining KODE, Etrit Demay, 35, worked for Port Huron-based smart building management company Hepta Control Systems, now known as entroCIM. They met Godjani, the third co-founder, through friends.

They refused to disclose KODE’s revenue figures, although Edi Demay said that “our revenue is in the eight figures and growing over 100% year over year.”

KODE was profitable from the start and didn’t raise money from outside investors for five years until an $8 million Series A round in 2022 led by Miami-based I Squared Capital, they said. The second round of funding, or Series B, raised $30 million last April with participation from Toronto-based Maverix Private Equity, Vancouver-based TELUS Ventures, and Jay Farner.

The brothers said they partnered with Farner in various business investments over the years, including the Besa restaurant at 600 Woodward downtown. They say he is KODE’s only investor from Michigan.

“I’ve known the brothers for quite some time, going back to when they were working on Rocket Fiber,” Farner said. “Even in those days, I recognized that not only are they incredibly smart, but they work hard and they are innovative, so it is not surprising that they would have such great success with KODE Labs.”

Before the Demaj family fled Kosovo during the war, their father was a mathematics professor and member of parliament, and their mother was a primary school teacher, they said.

When they settled in Rochester Hills, the boys’ parents had to find a variety of jobs to support their family. This meant roofing for my father and factory work for my mother.

“They really wanted to give us a better life,” said Eddie Demay.

The brothers attended Rochester Hills schools and then Oakland University.

KODE Labs leases space for its headquarters at the Bamboo Detroit coworking space on Washington Boulevard. The brothers hope to move the company’s headquarters to the New Center by the end of next year, where they are preparing to begin renovation work on the former two-story Detroit Police Department mounted police station at 210 E. Bethune St., which will have more than 9,000 beds. square meters of office space.

The building once housed stables and has been empty since 2005.

“We had the opportunity to buy this building from the city a few years ago,” Eddie Demay said. “We are completely focused on bringing it back to life and making it the smartest building it can be, so that it also becomes a showcase.”

Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JCReindl.