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Mostly due to age, houses in Europe are very difficult to heat. Most of them were made for an era when knowledge about energy consumption was not as available as it is today. As energy becomes more expensive and energy security evolves as a geopolitical issue, tech startups addressing this problem are proliferating. What’s needed is an easy way for consumers to engage with the issue of how much energy their home needs, how they can manage that and, crucially, how they can finance the changes needed.
An example of this is Sealed, a climate technology company from New York that designs, manages and finances indoor climate and electrification projects. It also recently bought sensor startup InfiSense to streamline its energy-saving services.
A similar start-up in Germany is “Enter” (formerly known as Baupal) which has now raised a €19.4 million Series A financing round. VC firms in the round were Koatu, Foundation, Target Global, A/O Proptech and Partech.
Homeowners complete a digital survey, then receive suggestions on how to reduce their building’s energy performance and costs. It also takes care of the appropriate grant applications for renewal.
According to Justus Menten, founder and managing director of Introductory, traditional energy assessments are too slow: “Currently, around 200,000 properties are renovated in Germany every year. But to meet our climate goals, it needs to be more than a million. Today’s certified energy efficiency consultants cannot achieve this goal in traditional ways. Although the training of new counselors is already running at full speed, it will take several years before there is sufficient capacity in Germany. This is where you come in,” he said in a statement.
File claims 75 percent of homeowners worry they can’t afford energy-efficient renovations, which is why this is offered as part of the service.
As well as VCs, Enter has business angels and mentors including Oliver Merkel, McMackler co-founders Hanno Heintzenberg and Lukasz Pizonka, Tax COO Dr. Daniel Kreter, Medwing founder Johannes Rogendorf and DST Global founder Tom Stafford.
On the call, co-founder and managing director Max Schroeren told me: “We end up with 250 data points and we only have to ask eight to nine questions. And that gives us 90% accuracy about the true energy-saving potential of the house. Then we validate the data and add more and more data points.” In addition, we conduct site visits with our own energy consultants, so at the end the homeowner has a better understanding of the building’s digital twin and how to improve the home.
Sarah Cannon, General Partner and Head of European Private Investments at Coatu said: “As Europe’s transition to energy independence accelerates, consumers are looking for tangible solutions to navigate the transition. Enter’s unique home energy intelligence platform gives consumers direct control over their energy footprint and effective actions to improve home energy efficiency and reduce climate impact.
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