What Urban Practices does

Urban Practices is a French boutique consultancy (S.A.S.) founded in 2016 and headquartered in Lyon, with a Paris office. The firm operates as an Assistant à Maîtrise d'Ouvrage (AMO) specialized in smart building and smart city projects under the "AMO Smart" and "AMO Digital" offerings, advising real estate owners, developers, social housing landlords, and public authorities on the integration of connected building technologies, IoT, data platforms, and digital twins. Its service portfolio spans strategic consulting, R2S/WiredScore/SmartScore certification support, and project assistance across the building lifecycle from design to operations.

The company has delivered more than 60 projects for over 40 clients since inception, including AXA, Allianz Real Estate, ICADE, Banque Pictet, SPL Lyon Confluence, Ville de Dijon, the Ministère des Armées, SPLAAD, emlyon business school, and the Université de Bordeaux. Underlying technical components referenced in its work include Building Operating Systems (BOS), IoT sensor integration, BIM (Building Information Modeling), and digital twin architectures. The firm is accredited under R2S, WiredScore, and SmartScore frameworks and is embedded in the Smart Buildings Alliance ecosystem, including through the ASCEND Consortium partnership.

Urban Practices generates revenue through project-based consulting fees and multi-year advisory engagements priced on scope and duration rather than SaaS or per-seat licensing. Its go-to-market relies on senior-led advisory delivery, partnership channels via SBA and ASCEND, and thought leadership content (Les Chroniques newsletter, AIR BIM white papers, event participation at BIM World and SBT Summit). The team is small (1–10 employees) and led by CEO Christian Rozier, former Smart Buildings Alliance founder, alongside COO Alain Kergoat and a senior consultant bench including Solenn Tardivel, Emmanuel François, and Caroline Denes.

Name

Urban Practices

Legal name

Urban Practices S.A.S.

Website

https://urbanpractices.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Urban Practices is a French boutique consultancy (Lyon/Paris) founded in 2016 that advises real estate owners, developers, social landlords, and public authorities on smart building and smart city projects via its AMO Smart and AMO Digital practices.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Smart Building & Smart City Consulting

NAICS

Administration of Housing Programs, Urban Planning, and Community Development (925), Architectural Services (54131)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Smart Cities & Urban Innovation Programs (Digital Planning, Civic Tech for Cities) (BPAIANAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Occupancy, Space Utilization & Workplace Experience (HSAPAPAG), Sustainable Cities, Urban Development & Green Infrastructure (BPADALAL)

Keywords

• Smart building consulting
• Urban planning advisory
• Digital transition consulting
• BIM strategy services
• Smart city project management

Headquarters

HQ city

Champs

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Consulting and Advisory Services: Professional consulting services for smart building and smart city projects, including strategic framing, auditing, service design, project implementation, and change management. Revenue is generated through project-based engagements and ongoing advisory relationships with clients.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Urban Practices is a French B2B consulting firm that advises public and private project owners on the digital transition of buildings, real estate portfolios, and urban territories. Its core offering is AMO Smart / AMO Digital — assistance to project owners on smart building and smart city projects — covering functional programming, technical specifications, solution selection (BOS, BIM-GEM, IWMS, Smart Workplace), smart building certification support (R2S, WiredScore, SmartScore), project management, and service design for new uses.

Product overview

Urban Practices offers a consulting services portfolio centered on AMO Smart (Smart Building Project Management), rather than a unified software product. Their offering encompasses four core consulting disciplines: AMO Smart/AMO Digital for smart building project management, Audit/Consulting/Studies for information systems and energy strategy, Project Management/Implementation for end-to-end coordination, and Service Design/New Uses for usage innovation. These consulting services often involve recommendations and integration guidance for technology solutions including Building Operating Systems (BOS), BIM-Operations, IWMS, and digital twin platforms (CIM). Urban Practices also provides accreditation support for smart building certifications (R2S, WiredScore, SmartScore). The company acts as advisor and assistant to project owners rather than as a software vendor.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• AMO Smart / AMO Digital Smart building project owner assistance (Assistance à Maîtrise d'Ouvrage) covering functional and usage programming, drafting technical specifications, guidance on solution selection (BOS, BIM-GEM, IWMS, Smart Workplace), smart building label support (R2S, WiredScore, SmartScore), and coordination of the smart workstream with project stakeholders. Targeted at corporate building owners, social landlords, and local authorities.
• Audit / Conseil / Etudes

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 60 projects conducted since 2016
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• ASCEND Consortium (Accelerate Sustainable and Clean Energy Districts)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023European innovation program (H2020) where Urban Practices is mandated for the Lyon part within the ASCEND consortium. The project aims to promote districts with positive environmental impact through digital infrastructure including territorial digital twins for monitoring energy and environmental parameters.
• UrbanThinkcoreTechnology or IntegrationSolution provider for the Lyon Confluence digital twin project. Operates a platform based on ESRI's ArcGIS Online with a digital abstraction layer developed by UrbanThink to aggregate and recombine data from various sources.
• DG4SCminorGTM or Marketing PartnerJoint exhibition and event partnership at BIM World 2025, with shared village stand and networking event.
• Smart Buildings Alliance (SBA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFounding member relationship. Emmanuel François founded SBA in 2012 and chaired until July 2022. Alain Kergoat has been contributing as program director since 2017. Christian Rozier chairs the Building Eco Renovation & Digital Commission. The company co-authored the SBA Manifeste 2017.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights10 records

Direct peers

• Algoé: Algoé is an independent French management and technology consulting firm that advises public and private organizations on complex transformation projects, including smart building, smart territory, and digital infrastructure programs. Its public-sector and complex-program positioning makes it a direct peer in AMO-style engagements.
• Elcimaï: Elcimaï is a French engineering and consulting group with a dedicated smart-building and digital practice covering BIM, smart building program management, and digital twin advisory. Its scope, structure (multi-disciplinary building + ICT), and French client base make it one of the closest direct competitors to Urban Practices' AMO Smart offering.
• Ubigreen: Ubigreen is a French energy and environmental performance consulting firm specializing in smart building, energy management, and sustainability advisory for building owners and occupants. It directly competes with Urban Practices in AMO Smart, energy management strategy, and sustainability consulting across French enterprise and public-sector accounts.
• GreenFlex: GreenFlex is a French sustainability and energy advisory firm (now part of Veolia) that helps organizations design and operationalize environmental and digital transformation plans, including smart-building and energy performance programs. It overlaps directly with Urban Practices on energy strategy, building performance, and sustainability-led digital advisory engagements.

Broad incumbents

• Egis: Egis is a major French engineering and consulting group with deep activity in building, urban development, and territory-scale digital programs. It competes with Urban Practices on smart territory and large urban-development mandates, particularly with public-sector clients and SPL-type developer entities.
• Setec: Setec is a major French engineering group with established practices in building engineering, BIM, and increasingly smart-building consulting. While far larger and broader than Urban Practices, Setec competes on enterprise and public-sector smart-building mandates where its multi-disciplinary engineering footprint is a differentiator.
• Wavestone: Wavestone is a major French-origin consulting firm advising large enterprises on transformation, including real estate, sustainability, and digital building programs. Its scale, enterprise client base, and emerging smart-building practice position it as a broad incumbent that increasingly overlaps with Urban Practices' enterprise mandates.
• Schneider Electric: Schneider Electric is a global building management systems and energy automation provider (EcoStruxure) that increasingly offers consulting, partner ecosystem support, and digital twin services for smart buildings. It competes with Urban Practices at the integration and program-level rather than as a pure consulting peer, but increasingly bundles advisory through its partner network.
• Artelia: Artelia is a leading French engineering and project management group active in buildings, territories, and digital infrastructure. Its building-services platform overlaps with Urban Practices on smart-building program design, BIM strategy, and district-scale advisory, but Artelia operates at significantly larger scale across broader engineering scopes.

Emerging players

• Deepki: Deepki is a French PropTech firm offering a SaaS platform for real estate ESG and energy performance, increasingly bundling advisory services with its software. It is an emerging competitor/adjacent player to Urban Practices, particularly on energy management, sustainability, and asset-level digital transformation programs.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/urban-practices
• Xx.com/urbanpractices

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Urban Practices