Ricoh and Butlr Form Strategic Alliance to Advance the Future of Workplaces

“A game changer for the modern workplace has arrived”.

Ricoh Digital Services, a subsidiary of Ricoh Company, Ltd., and Butlr Technologies Inc., a U.S.-based company pioneering scalable people-sensing data infrastructure, have formed a strategic business alliance. This innovative collaboration, backed by Ricoh’s corporate venture capital fund, the RICOH Innovation Fund, is set to redefine how we experience and interact with our workplaces.

Guiding this partnership is a shared vision to reimagine workplace experiences through innovation, data-driven intelligence, and a privacy-first approach, with a strong emphasis on enhancing employee wellbeing.

Ricoh Digital Services is committed to helping customers unleash their creative potential by optimising business processes, enhancing productivity, and enabling seamless collaboration—anytime, anywhere. Ricoh focuses on delivering environments that foster communication and collaboration without the constraints of location to continuously improve and enhance employee’s workplace experience.

Butlr’s thermal sensing technology offers a scalable, anonymous, and privacy-compliant way to understand how people use physical spaces. Combined with Ricoh’s global reach and expertise in workplace solutions, the alliance brings together complementary capabilities to drive digital transformation in the built environment.

Through this pioneering partnership, Ricoh and Butlr will explore and pursue joint initiatives, including:

• Integrating Butlr’s sensing technologies with Ricoh’s digital workplace services, such as RICOH Spaces.
  
  
• Expanding global deployment of Butlr’s sensor solutions through Ricoh’s established customer channels.
  
  
• Joint development of new workplace experience offerings powered by spatial intelligence.
  
  
• Identifying additional opportunities for collaboration and mutual benefit.
  
  

“We are delighted to strengthen our partnership with Butlr through this capital and business alliance. I have no doubt that together with Butlr, we will further advance Ricoh’s Workplace Experience business and contribute to the societal implementation of physical space AI that Butlr is striving to achieve,” said Sanae Endo, General Manager, Corporate Planning Center, Ricoh Company, Ltd.

 Honghao Deng, CEO and co-founder, Butlr, added, “Our partnership with Ricoh enables us to expand our presence in the workplace and meet the growing demand for our Heatic 2+ sensors, which provide original, real-time insight into the needs of the workforce while ensuring privacy. Together, Ricoh and Butlr are transforming the workplace experience by enabling the highest levels of productivity and collaboration.”

EMEA as the Strategic First Step

The alliance will initially focus on the EMEA region, where demand for digital workplace transformation is accelerating, driven by the widespread adoption of hybrid work and changing organisational needs. The region’s strong regulatory frameworks for data privacy also align with Butlr’s privacy-first approach, making it a natural fit for early deployment. Working together, Ricoh and Butlr are addressing the evolving needs of customers, while upholding the world’s most stringent privacy standards.

Looking ahead, Ricoh and Butlr are committed to driving open innovation, co-creating value for customers, and shaping a more human-centered and sustainable future of work.

Curious how this partnership will shape your workplace? You can find Ricoh and Butlr at PropTech Connect in London on 3rd and 4th September, showcasing their combined solutions at their stand in the Peninsular Ballroom.