Optimuse raises €4M to make building design smarter, cheaper, and greener

Austrian deep tech startup Optimuse has raised €4 million Seed funding.

Optimuse was founded in Vienna in 2021 by Dominik Pezzei, Fabian Pitscheider, and Felix Maximilian Hofer.

Optimuse is an AI platform that shows builders, developers, and planners early on which technical solutions for heating, cooling, ventilation, and building envelopes deliver the best results in terms of costs and emissions – in both new construction and renovation projects.

It uses existing plans and documents to create a realistic digital building model, compares thousands of variants, and recommends the most economical, climate-friendly solution – including clear recommendations for action. Early design decisions shape the costs and emissions of buildings for decades.

With OPTIMUSE, these decisions are data-driven – with measurable results:

• 70 per cent faster in preliminary engineering
• 10 per cent lower construction costs through better selection and dimensioning
• 20 per cent additional emission savings.

These effects are evident across all projects – from residential to commercial to industrial.

Optimuse quickly creates a realistic simulation-based digital model of the building from existing plans and documents. Based on this, the platform compares modernization paths (e.g., heating replacement, office to residential, gas to heat pump) and quantifies the effects on CAPEX, OPEX, CO₂, and comfort.

The result: technically reliable cost/benefit analyses with transparent assumption documentation and sensitivity analyses, as well as prioritised action plans that focus investments, reduce implementation risks, and accelerate CO₂ savings.

Optimuse analyses early designs using simulation, identifies variants with lower energy requirements, and precisely calculates the optimal sizing of the building services equipment. This ensures that systems are neither oversized nor undersized – investment costs are reduced, operating costs are lower from the outset, and the target values for efficiency and comfort are achieved in a technically sound manner.

According to Dominik Pezzei, Managing Director and co-founder of Optimuse, buildings are becoming increasingly complex, both technically and in terms of regulations. 

“Our AI solution provides clarity: it compares variants in a very short time and recommends the most sustainable and economical solution. This enables our customers to plan, transform, and operate buildings in a future-proof and cost-efficient manner."

The capital comes from seed + speed Ventures  and Blum Ventures, as well as existing investors Matterwave Ventures and Gründungsfonds.

Alexander Kölpin, Managing Director at seed + speed Ventures, shared: 

"What convinces me about Optimuse is the combination of sound technology and practical application: using digital simulations, the team shows early on in the engineering phase which renovation measures are technically feasible and also economically viable.

In a market with enormous renovation needs and strict efficiency requirements, this is a real game changer." 

  According to André Hammerer, Managing Director at Blum Ventures:

"Optimuse addresses one of the biggest issues of our time: the sustainable transformation of the building stock. With its combination of AI, building physics, and practical simulation, the team creates real added value for builders, planners, and operators."

With the fresh capital, Optimuse is accelerating the internationalisation and distribution of its AI solutions for the engineering, renovation, and operation of buildings.

Lead image: Optimuse. Photo: Maximilian Salzer.