Cologne-based aedifion, a proptech startup that helps monitor, manage and reduce energy usage in the commercial environments, announced on Friday that it has raised €12M in an oversubscribed Series A round of funding.
The investment was led by Europe’s leading climate tech investor World Fund and BeyondBuild, with participation from the family office of SAP’s founding family Hopp. Bauwens, Drees & Sommer and MOMENI Venture also participated, along with existing investors BitStone Capital and Phoenix Contact Innovation Ventures.
Mark Windeknecht, investment manager at World Fund, says, “Office buildings are responsible for 6.6 per cent of global CO2 emissions – an astounding figure. If you can solve energy inefficiencies for commercial buildings, then there is huge potential to reduce the climate impact of this sector at the same time. aedifion is an example of how climate mitigation and cost savings can be scaled via software.”
Capital utilisation
aedifion founder Johannes Fütterer says, “We want to make buildings part of the energy system of the future. Thanks to digitisation and AI, buildings can become part of the energy transition – as virtual power plants that are part of a smart network. Inefficiencies in operations are automatically identified on an ongoing basis, which saves money and reduces emissions – and all of this is completely digital and scalable across all properties.”
The company claims it will use the funds to improve its platform even further so that clients can save more money and tackle the rising expenses of commercial buildings’ energy usage.
How is AI enabling the smart building revolution
Founded in 2017 as a spin-off from RWTH Aachen University, aedifion helps to operate buildings sustainably, efficiently and transparently. With the company’s AI-based cloud platform, energy consumption, CO2 emissions and operating costs of buildings can be reduced and their sustainability improved.
aedifion’s platform can also detect overspending and excessive energy use, such as heating empty rooms or locating places that need retrofitting or additional insulation. It can also employ AI to monitor, manage and control heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in a predictive manner.
The AI predicts this by taking into account factors such as weather (changeability, seasonality, localised forecasting), alongside the thermal capabilities of a building by benchmarking and cross-comparing with other buildings of the same size and usage to determine appropriate energy usage levels.
The company claims that its software enables users to save up to 40 per cent on energy costs by pinpointing where and how to improve energy efficiency.
The company says the platform can also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by millions of tonnes yearly.
There are 2.7 million commercial structures with over 1.35 billion square metres of net floor area in Germany alone. aedifion estimates that widespread adoption of their software can result in an annual CO2 reduction of more than 10 million tonnes.
The company’s founders include Felix Dorner, Dr-Ing Johannes Fütterer, Dr Jan Henrik Ziegeldorf, and Erik Brümmendorf. Some of its customers in Germany include AEW, Hines, Art-Invest, Gegenbauer and ROM Technik.
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