Millions of buildings in Germany have to be energetically renovated. Investors are betting that the Berlin startup Ecoworks will benefit from this.
Ecoworks founder Emanuel Heisenberg. Yes, that’s right: he is the grandson of Werner Heisenberg, physicist and inventor of quantum mechanics. Ecoworks
According to estimates, almost eight million buildings will have to be renovated in a climate-friendly manner in Germany alone in the next few years. The background is a new EU directive: According to this, all residential properties should have at least energy efficiency class “D” by 2033, i.e. consume a maximum of 130 kilowatt hours of electricity per square meter per year. If this is not the case, there is a risk that individual buildings can no longer be rented or sold.
In particular, owners of large existing properties such as apartment buildings are under pressure, because their properties are often decades old and not very energy-efficient. That means: roofs have to be insulated better, facades have to be renewed and modern heating systems have to be installed. That costs money, but also nerves: Renovation is expensive and in many places there is a lack of skilled workers.
It is also this problem that Emanuel Heisenberg describes to investors. Heisenberg is the founder of the startup Ecoworks and hopes to benefit from the renovation backlog. The Berlin company advertises that housing estates and prefabricated buildings can be renovated quickly through serial production. Heisenberg promises that 80 percent of the work will be done inexpensively by robots in factories. The finished panels, which also include windows and ventilation, are then installed by Ecoworks on the building within a few days. “It’s like a second skin wrapped around the house“, Heisenberg then explains to potential financiers. By 2027 he is aiming for a turnover of one billion euros.
“Currently the best answer on the market”
In order to enable the necessary growth, Ecoworks has now received a new capital injection of 22 million euros. In addition to the existing Berlin investor Proptech1 Ventures, the US financiers Zacua Ventures and Blackhorn Ventures participated in the financing round. The medium-sized company Warema from Lower Franconia, which specializes in building technology, is also part of the group of shareholders.
Ecoworks boss Heisenberg did not want to comment on the evaluation when asked by the start-up scene. In the corporate environment, however, there is talk of a high amount in the millions “on the edge of two to three digits”. Since the founding of Ecoworks in 2018, almost 45 million euros have flowed into the startup.
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Nikolas Samios, Managing Partner at the Berlin investor Proptech1, justifies his renewed investment with the market opportunities outside of Germany. “The topic of renovation applies across the EU and increasingly in the USA,” says Samios. The fact that Ecoworks offers, in addition to patented production methods, a software platform for planning renovations digitally makes the start-up particularly attractive. According to Samios, Ecoworks is currently the “best answer on the market” for “external renovation”. There is still competition: in addition to Ecoworks, the startups Enter from Berlin and 42watt from Munich also want to promote the energetic renovation of buildings.
With the 22 million euros from the new round of financing, Ecoworks founder Emanuel Heisenberg now wants to gain a head start. “The round allows us to break even as profitability is key to building a leading player in the rehabilitation sector,” said Heisenberg. This should be achieved by the end of 2024 at the latest.
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