· Berlin-based Proptech Start-up receives support from Wecken & Cie., IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, E.ON :agile and High Rise Ventures
· The seven-figure sum will be invested in the further development of the platform and the establishment of sales and operations
The Berlin-based Proptech start-up KUGU founded by Christopher von Gumppenberg and Leopold Kuttner has started the new year by finalizing its seed investment round. In total, the lead investors Wecken & Cie., IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, E.ON :agile and angel investors around High Rise Ventures have invested a seven-digit amount. The fresh capital will be used for the further development of the platform as well as the establishment of sales and operations.
KUGU was founded in 2016 and offers customers solutions for a digital building management. With its SaaS solution, real estate companies can independently bill heating and water costs and increase energy efficiency in buildings - without generating additional costs. Moreover, the modular structure of the platform offers energy companies the opportunity to optimally supplement their existing product range to offer the real estate industry more services.
Combined forces by strong partners
"The founding team convinced us early of its expertise and business model. With its approach to rethink submetering, KUGU is hitting the ravages of our time and enables its customers to digitalize both their processes and buildings," says Thilo Schmid of Wecken & Cie about the future cooperation with KUGU. With E.ON, KUGU also receives support from the energy industry. Dr. Alexander Montebaur, CEO of E.DIS AG, a subsidiary of E.ON, is pleased about an already established cooperation with KUGU: "The product portfolio of KUGU complements our existing offers for the housing industry. The successful implementation of a first pilot project has led to the decision to offer new solutions to customers". In addition, High Rise Ventures, with its many years of experience in the real estate industry as well as in cooperation with well-known proptech start-ups, will pave the way to a successful future.
Founders look optimistically into the future
"We are pleased that we were able to convince strong partners of our vision. In addition to market access, we are gaining great expertise which will help us to build and scale KUGU" the founders Christopher von Gumppenberg and Leopold Kuttner commented on the successful investment round. The founders are optimistic about the future of KUGU: "For many years, a few submetering service-providers have dominated the market. At the same time, the real estate industry suffers from poor service quality and slow, manual and faulty processes. We see good opportunities to shape the real estate and energy market sustainably through our digital approach".
About KUGU (www.kugu-home.com)
KUGU is a proptech start-up from Berlin, founded in 2016, which provides the housing and energy industry with a digital toolbox for independent billing of heat costs. The company uses an IoT/Software-as-a-Service solution and intelligent algorithms to automate the heat cost billing processes as far as possible and to increase energy efficiency. The resident app allows KUGU to track consumption data on a daily basis, thus increasing the transparency and acceptance of the heat bill.
About Wecken & Cie.
Wecken & Cie. is a venture capital and real estate investor that invests in fast-growing, disruptive European technology companies in the FinTech and PropTech industry as well as in listed real estate companies. Since 2007, Wecken & Cie., under the leadership of CEO Frank Hölzle, has financed more than 40 companies and has successfully accompanied Delivery Hero, Quentic and commerce tools to exit. Wecken & Cie. is supported by Klaus Wecken, serial founder in the technology and real estate industry, in particular, former co-founder and board member of KHK Software, which he sold to Sage Group in 1997.
About IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft
The IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft (www.ibb-bet.de) provides venture capital to innovative Berlin startups and has established itself as the market leader in early-stage financing in Berlin. The funds are primarily used for the development and market launch of innovative products or services as well as for business concepts of the creative industries. Since March 2015 two funds managed by IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft are in the investment phase, VC Fonds Technologie Berlin II with a fund volume of EUR 60 million and VC Fonds Kreativwirtschaft Berlin II with a fund volume of EUR 40 million. Both VC funds are financed by the Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) and the European Fund for Regional Development (EFRE), managed by the State of Berlin. Since 1997, IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft has provided approx. EUR 1.52 billion to over 210 Berlin creative and technology companies in consortia with partners, of which IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft has invested EUR 217 million as lead, co-lead or co-investor.
E.ON :agile Accelerator GmbH
Accelerator and Seed Investor of E.ON, :agile is committed to promoting innovative to disruptive energy-related business models and helping them to grow. Together with E.ON's expertise and network, :agile supports European and Israeli startups to successfully scale their ideas. The aim is to connect the companies with E.ON subsidies to realize joint pilots and offer new digitized and sustainable customer and business solutions. The startups will gain access to E.ON's customer base and business network.
About High Rise Ventures
High Rise Ventures is a company builder and investor for proptechs and was founded in February 2018 by Claudia Nagel. The company focuses on tech start-ups in the B2B sector, which offer added value for the real estate industry, especially for existing properties. More information is available at www.highrise.ventures.
