Swiss startup Viboo secures €1.6M to reduce Europe's building energy consumption

Today Swiss climate tech startup viboo has successfully closed a €1.6 million seed funding round.

The company has developed a Predictive Control as a Service platform (PCaaS) which makes smart thermostats really smart. 
 Initially, the platform's algorithms learn the thermal behaviour of a building. 

Buildings account for 40 percent of Europe's energy consumption.

viboo's technology can then predict the building's temperature evolution. It considers factors such as the weather forecast and occupant preferences and optimises the energy input into each room, lowering a building's temperature. 

The Swiss climate tech startup has already worked with industry-leading partners such as Danfoss, ABB, Netatmo, and Bouygues. Buildings achieved 20-40 percent energy savings during the last heating period.

Funds from the new investment will be used to scale up the commercialisation of viboo's technology, focusing on light commercial buildings, especially those in cities and municipalities. 

Felix Bünning, Founder and CEO of viboo shared: 

"We showed during the last heating period that our technology works, can deliver a real impact and that we're able to attract partners from the entire value chain. With the next heating season coming up, we're ready to scale up and fully tap into the light commercial buildings. 

Our solution helps those buildings to save energy and offers a quick return on investment. We're grateful for the support from our investors and look forward to tackling the big issue of decarbonising buildings together with them."

viboo is rooted in world-leading research at Empa and ETH Zurich, as well as other outstanding building automation labs at RWTH Aachen and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.

The company and their founders have won several prestigious awards, including a BRIDGE fellowship, all Venture Kick stages, the Innobooster by Gebert Rüf Stiftung, the Swiss GreenTech Startup Battle, Empa Innovation Award and an ETH Medal.

The funding round includes investments from High-Tech Gründerfonds, Swisscom Ventures, and Rainmaking Impact. 

Gregor Haidl, Senior Investment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds, said:

"viboo's decentralised approach is very promising. Their platform and algorithms are potentially game-changing for existing and even older buildings. The results from the last heating season show that viboo is ready to make a significant impact on the decarbonising of buildings."

The round was oversubscribed, reflecting strong investor confidence and interest in the company's potential to decarbonise buildings, and will be used to scale up the commercialisation of the technology.

Lead image via viboo. Photo: Uncredited