Brightly eyes growth following $1.6B Siemens deal

Cary-based software company Brightly said it remains committed to the Triangle after agreeing to sell itself to German industrial giant Siemens for nearly $1.6 billion.

Context: Brightly — which had been known as Dude Solutions until earlier this year — is the maker of a building management software that helps building owners keep track of maintenance and energy usage.

• Brightly employs more than 700 people, including a majority contingent at its headquarters in Regency Park.
• "We're going to continue to grow the Cary location. It is the nexus of what we do," Brightly CEO Kevin Kemmerer told Axios in an interview.

The big picture: Siemens could take Brightly's technology into more countries and more industries, Siemens' head of smart infrastructure, Matthias Rebellius, told Axios.

• Currently Brightly has 12,000 customers.
• Siemens, on the other hand, has hundreds of thousands of customers and millions of smart devices that could feed real-time data to Brightly.

What's next: Rebellius said Siemens wants to use Brightly's software to make buildings more energy efficient.

• He told Axios he envisions a day when Siemens' internet-of-things devices and Brightly's software can determine in real time what part of a building is not running efficiently or suggest projects that would lower carbon emissions.
• Residential and commercial buildings account for nearly 40% of U.S. energy consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

What they're saying: "There's a big opportunity to bring that down," Kemmerer said.