Cologne-based, a proptech startup aedifion revealed that it had raised €12M in an oversubscribed Series A round of funding. Aedifion helps monitor, control, and minimize energy usage in commercial spaces.
With involvement from the family office of SAP’s founding family Hopp, the investment was led by BeyondBuild and World Fund, two of Europe’s top investors in climate technology. Along with previous backers BitStone Capital and Phoenix Contact Innovation Ventures, other investors included Bauwens, Drees & Sommer, MOMENI Venture, and others.
According to Mark Windeknecht, investment manager of World Fund, “Office buildings contribute an incredible 6.6% of the world’s CO2 emissions. Commercial building energy inefficiencies have a significant potential to simultaneously lessen the sector’s climate footprint. If they can be fixed, that is. Aedifion is an illustration of how software may scale up cost savings and climate mitigation.
According to Johannes Fütterer, the founder of aedifion, “We want to integrate buildings into the future energy grid. Buildings can participate in the energy transition as virtual power plants that are a component of a smart network thanks to digitization and AI. Automatically identifying operational inefficiencies over time results in cost savings and pollution reductions, and everything is fully digital and scalable across all properties.
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The business asserts that it would use the funds to enhance its platform even more so that customers may save more money and address the rising costs associated with the energy usage of commercial buildings.
Aedifion, a spin-off from RWTH Aachen University, was established in 2017 to support the operation of buildings in a transparent, efficient, and sustainable manner. Building operation expenses, CO2 emissions, and energy usage can all be decreased with the use of the company’s AI-based cloud platform.
The platform of aedifion can also identify instances of wasteful spending and energy use, such as heating vacant spaces or identifying locations that require retrofitting or more insulation. Additionally, it can use AI to predictably monitor, manage, and control HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems.
By benchmarking and cross-comparing a building’s thermal capabilities with those of other structures of a similar size and use to determine appropriate energy usage levels, the AI predicts this by taking into account factors like weather (changeability, seasonality, localized forecasting), as well as the thermal capabilities of a building.
By identifying where and how to increase energy efficiency, the company claims that its software helps consumers to save up to 40% on energy bills.
The platform, according to the company, can cut annual carbon dioxide emissions by millions of tonnes.
In Germany alone, there are 2.7 million commercial buildings with more than 1.35 billion square meters of net floor area. According to aedifion, the widespread use of their software can reduce CO2 emissions by more than 10 million tonnes annually.
Felix Dorner, Dr. Jan Henrik Ziegeldorf, Dr. Ing. Johannes Fütterer, and Erik Brümmendorf are among the founders of the business. In Germany, AEW, Hines, Art-Invest, Gegenbauer, and ROM Technik are just a few of its clients.
Image Credit: aedifion
