Camera-free sensors that send cleaners and cooling only where people are
TL;DR Vacantly fits camera-free occupancy sensors across hybrid offices and turns the live counts into two things your facility team acts on daily - cleaning rounds sent to zones that got used, and AC cut back where nobody sits. Facility-management firms and occupiers pay monthly. It works if the labour and power savings show up on bills.
Indian offices fill unevenly now. A property consultancy's 2025 survey found 94% of firms want staff in three or more days a week[1], which leaves Mondays, Fridays and whole wings thinly used while mid-week floors are packed.
Facility operations haven't caught up. Housekeeping still cleans every washroom and meeting room on a fixed timetable, and the AC runs to a building schedule and not to who actually turned up.
Space is expensive too, with prime Bengaluru rent at ₹163 per sq ft a month[2], and the running costs on top of rent follow the same fixed pattern. Facility heads know some of this effort goes to waste but they have no live data on where people are, and the utilisation numbers firms quote are self-reported[1].
Vacantly puts battery-powered thermal or radar sensors over desks, meeting rooms and washrooms. They count bodies without capturing faces, so there's no identity data to protect. The counts feed two outputs.
The first is a cleaning queue. Instead of a fixed round, housekeeping supervisors get a list on their phone of zones that crossed a usage threshold, so the washrooms on a busy floor get attention and an empty wing gets a lighter check.
The second is a cooling signal. If the building management system allows it then Vacantly sends zone-level occupancy so AC set-points can relax in empty areas. If it doesn't, the facility team gets a daily list of zones to switch off.
The seed called for AI-driven recommendations. Honestly, rules and thresholds do this job well, so Vacantly starts with them and adds forecasting only if the data proves it's useful. Monthly reports show labour hours moved and, where metered, power used per occupied seat.
The facility-management contractor or the occupier's admin head pays a monthly fee per sensor or per floor. FM contractors are the natural channel, because they price cleaning contracts and can win bids by showing smarter deployment. Global vendors price software apart from hardware, and one global vendor lists US$229 (about ₹22,000) per radar sensor plus monthly software per room or desk[3].
Return-to-office has settled into a pattern with predictable empty days[1]. Camera-free sensors are now sold off the shelf, with several global vendors offering anonymous counting and open APIs[3][4]. And leasing hit a record 82.6 million sq ft in 2025[5], so the floor area facility teams manage keeps growing.
There's no public figure for India's occupancy-sensing or smart-cleaning market. The closest proxy is managed floor area, with 82.6 million sq ft absorbed in 2025 alone[5].
One global vendor already lists adaptive cleaning as a product line[3], which suggests global buyers pay for it. Treat both as nearby signals until Indian pilots show savings.
Global vendors sell camera-free occupancy sensors with analytics around the world[3][4]. One Indian workplace platform offers room booking with automatic release and workplace analytics, but it's built on booking data rather than sensors[6]. Building-management vendors control the AC but rarely know where people are.
The gap is a product priced and supported in India that connects the counts to the cleaning crew and the AC, and not just to a dashboard.
| Difficulty | Moderate (49/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹60 L–1.2 Cr |
| Time to launch | 6–9 months |
The sensors exist already. The hard part is plugging into a patchwork of building-management systems, getting housekeeping supervisors to work from a phone queue and proving savings on bills that facility firms and landlords both touch. Every new building brings a different AC system to learn, which gets old fast.
There's no sector licence for occupancy sensing. The approvals are about radio equipment and building access.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't trust AI to change AC set-points in a building on its own. A facility person approves the rules, and the system stays away from anything safety-related.
Want to work out the AI layer for Vacantly? Talk to Yash →
I'd back this for a founder with facility-management or building-automation experience who can sell to FM contractors. It is not for someone expecting a quick SaaS sale. First prove, in two paid pilots, that cleaning hours or metered power per occupied seat drop by a figure the payer will sign off on.
Plan for roughly ₹60 L–1.2 Cr, covering sensor stock, integrations with building systems and paid pilots.
No sector licence. You need company registration, GST, WPC approval for wireless devices, DPDP compliance and written landlord consent before touching AC controls.
Yes. Facility contractors everywhere want fewer wasted cleaning rounds. Check local radio equipment approvals and workplace privacy rules first.
The free Vacantly validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the radio and data-protection checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for facility heads and FM contractors, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Vacantly or something close to it? The make-or-break work is proving savings the payer can see on a bill, and I can help you plan that pilot. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.