Domatic - Reinventing the way buildings are powered for  smart, safe, and sustainable living

Meet Domatic — a better way to electrify buildings

Everyone deserves to live and work in safer, greener, and healthier spaces. Domatic, a California-based startup specializing in intelligent power systems, is turning this idea into reality with a plug-and-play electrical wiring solution for energy-efficient and sustainable living spaces. 

By replacing inefficient 120/240V AC wiring with a low-voltage DC solution that is 4x faster to install and uses 90% less copper than Romex, they're paving the way for smarter buildings that are more efficient to build and maintain, and compatible with a DC, solar-powered future. Unlike other low-voltage solutions, you can branch and daisy-chain with simple 2-conductor wiring. With the layered-in intelligence, fixtures form a secure IP network with the central hub through the wires themselves, enabling software apps to control and monitor the fixtures and manage energy usage, revealing opportunities for energy savings, among other benefits.

Domatic partners with developers and construction companies that share their philosophy: making intelligent buildings more accessible so that more people have a chance to live in a smarter and healthier environment. One of their ongoing, large-scale collaborations is with Sustainable Living Innovations, a Seattle-based technology company. Together, they have designed and are building multiple smart buildings, such as, 303 Battery Street and the Downtown Emergency Service Center, the first net zero high-rise buildings.  Another is Cloud Apartments, a new brand of modular apartments for sophisticated middle-income renters, who is planning to build five sites in the Bay area, including San Jose and Berkeley. 

Building your own hardware comes with its own challenges

The team behind Domatic creates energy-efficient electrical wiring by adapting the hardware in existing fixtures and connecting them to their automated system. With a central controller and individual drivers to power and control each fixture, all electronic devices within a building are connected via software.  

It’s a constantly evolving practice: the team needs to adapt to changing circumstances, continuously make improvements, and iterate on designs. Working with strict timelines adds to the challenges — they need to be able to act fast and make tough choices when needed. To match the increasing demand, they also need to find ways to gradually increase volume without letting the quality and affordability of the products suffer. 

As Jim Baldwin, Co-founder & CEO of Domatic explains,

“Building your own hardware comes with difficulties, especially for a startup. On one hand, you have to be careful about the prices of components to maintain the affordability of your products. On the other hand, you need them to arrive as fast as possible to keep up the velocity.”

In the early days of production, worldwide Covid lockdowns were a serious obstacle for the team, causing countless procurement-related issues. Sourcing chips was particularly difficult. It wasn’t just about the struggle of finding chips at a reasonable price — they also had to make sure they used original pieces from trusted suppliers.

The chip market is an extremely fraudulent one: grey market sellers are taking advantage of the international chip shortage, selling grossly overpriced and, occasionally, counterfeit products. Oftentimes, the chips they ordered did not work as expected or did not work at all, causing huge delays in production. 

Finding a reliable partner for procurement and inventory management

Back in 2021, still in the early stages of production, the Domatic team heard about Cofactr’s automated supply chain solution for electronics and scheduled their first call.  

As Gladys Wong, Co-founder & COO of Domatic remembers, 

“Our teams have been on the same page from the first moment. We’d encountered some sketchy companies in the past, but the Cofactr team has always been transparent and incredibly helpful. They understand what we need: trust in our suppliers, collaboration, and ongoing information.” 

Today, Domatic relies on Cofactr for end-to-end electronics procurement processes and inventory management. But there’s more to it: Cofactr’s software-controlled lab is equipped with x-ray and optical inspection equipment and automated tools to perform quality control, anti-counterfeiting inspections, and generate reports on site. When a component arrives at their depot, the very first step is to certify that the piece is original, intact, and fits manufacturer specs, so the customer can be confident that the part will meet their quality requirements. 

“Not every company can afford to have their own testing machines. We’re lucky that Cofactr does it for us. We are always confident that if we buy something from them, it will be x-rayed and properly inspected to ensure its authenticity.”  — Jim Baldwin, Co-founder & CEO

The results: peace of mind, efficiency, and focus on innovation 

The close collaboration with Cofactr has enabled the Domatic team to reach a new level of maturity. Not having to worry about sourcing components has freed up so much of their capacity that they are now able to fully focus on scaling their production and prioritizing innovation. Having a partner who does the behind-the-scenes, time-consuming work for them has been a huge help.

“Cofactr saves us a full-time job’s worth of time. Thanks to them, I didn’t have to hire another person only to monitor inventory and logistics. We also eliminated the procurement-related bottlenecks we used to have.” — Gladys Wong, Co-founder & COO

Additionally, using Cofactr has allowed Domatic to remain cost-efficient. In a few clicks, they can compare prices of components from different manufacturers, place back orders, or pre-order parts in bulk with a discount, while saving on inventory management and logistics costs. Ordering parts via Cofactr has also reduced the strain of international tariff management, which has been invaluable for a startup operating with limited time and resources.

“You need confidence in the people you work with. Cofactr gives us peace of mind that we have everything we need to build great products, at a great price. This was very much needed in the industry!” — Jim Baldwin, Co-founder & CEO

In the near future, the Domatic team will heavily focus on scaling their production and making smarter living spaces more accessible. They are also working on gradually incorporating AI into their solutions to make them even easier to use, with almost no configuration needed. To make all of this possible, they are counting on Cofactr to help them along the way.