Remodel energy It is betting on a more integrated approach to accelerate the decarbonization of the built environment. Founded in Munich, Germany, in May 2024, the startup is led by a team with experience in energy businesses, including the German division of the Verivox Energy and Energy Prices comparison platform. It focuses on the sale of energy system updates to commercial real estate, aimed at owners with building wallets.
Carbon emissions of heating buildings contribute significantly to climate change. Therefore, accelerating the transition to forms of lower heat management, such as heat pumps and solar panels, is a key piece of climatic objectives. Therefore, why, in Europe, considerable regulatory pressure is applied to buildings owners to carry out energy improvements.
At the same time, accessing the specialized skills required to achieve these energy update projects, or even understand what should be done to optimize a particular building, can slow down the impulse to install low carbon solutions.
Reshape Energy expects a single window model to help vent part of friction outside the system, starting in the German market but with the eye of expanding in other parts of Europe as the approach scale.
Address energy update inertia
“Why is not enough happening” was a key question that the founders started while thinking how to structure a business aimed at commercial buildings with energy improvements, CEO and co -founder Benjamin Stanzl tells britcommerce?
“We have seen a lot of impulse in [energy upgrades for] Single -family houses … but when you look at commercial real estate, which is really our approach, it is very, very slow, “he says.” The biggest [competitive] The threat is definitely the option “Do nothing.”
The reasons why the sector has been so slow in absorption, suggests, suggests: it is not a single missing piece that, for example, a new piece of technology could fix; Rather, it is the systemic complexity of orchestrating all the various bits necessary to successfully deliver these projects that retain the rate of change.
“The complexity of executing these projects is incredibly high,” he argues. “Commercial property owners simply do not have the experience. And some of them do not even want to deal with that, because it is not their main business. “
Stanzl also points out that construction is a sector that depends largely on trust, so a low level of trust can also reduce the speed of progress.
The startup is assuming this inertia of energy update through an acquisition model that considers it to buy existing companies in the sector to bring key capabilities and customer relationships at home, which drives an energy optimization offer as a service.
The idea is to cover all stages of a project, from initial evaluations and determine what is needed, until the installation of new systems and continuous service and maintenance. It also includes financing when customers want to distribute the frontal cost of the installation of new energy systems.
When covering the complete chain of what is required for an energy update, the startup believes that it can unlock the efficiency of the scale and at the same time that they incline (and take advantage) the reliable relationships of customers. The isolated workflow is being removed that most typically characterizes the sector, according to Stanzl.
He says that the startup has collected a more fragmentary energy update project so far, attached to the capabilities it has brought to the house. But the idea is to continue expanding what can offer and work to assume projects with many moving parts and much greater complexity, for example, such as the district heating facilities, as they continue to build the business.
Financing injection
Reshape has already made some acquisitions to develop its offer. More are on the cards, and the company will use some of a new financing round of € 5 million for this purpose, its first increase in external capital.
When buying smaller companies, often regional, you can attack the acquisition of customers and connect to the relationships and contacts that these other companies have accumulated over the years, as well as the key incorporation skills to deliver projects. An acquisition model also gives you total control of where and how skills are implemented, says Stanzl.
“During the life of these businesses, hundreds have served, if not thousands, [of customers]”He points out that the reinvestment of companies has brought home. Until now, he has collected a energy consulting business and a commercial planning company, installation and maintenance.
“The control piece is critical, because we need all these companies to work together, and we need to use common systems and common technology,” he adds, drawing their strategy to unlock efficiency in the delivery of projects grouping trust and risk.
The founders are putting their money where their mouth is, contributing with some of their own funds to the increase of 5 million euros, which is being labeled freely as a round of seeds. Although Stanzl says they are not convinced that a typical risk financing model is for them, other approaches, such as private capital, could be better, postulates.
Other investors in the round include postcriptum ventures, viéo ventures and some experts in the unidentified industry.
Different models
Germany has seen an boom in the new energy update companies in recent years, after the invasion of Ukraine of Russia in Ukraine in 2022 and the resulting increase in gasoline prices. But the first wave of energy update activity, much of which focused on single -family houses, which followed that clash “definitely calmed down,” says Stanzl.
The players in space have more incentives to get out of their lanes and adopt a more united approach to offer the next wave of updates, he says. In turn, it allows to address more complex challenges such as commercial real estate updates.
“You can’t implement the heat pump if you don’t know what the electrical infrastructure of a building is, right? And if he does, he can suddenly promise his client a lot of savings and then return and realize that they need to update their transformer or something. Then all your savings are out of the window, ”he suggests.
“So I think that several people are realizing that if they simply focus on their little silo, it is not enough.”
The Reashape model of offering energy optimization services to buildings of buildings seems more efficient of capital than other approaches, such as those that involve buying real estate to transform through the modernization of their energy infrastructure.
German startup ReneusFor example, it recently closed a financing round of 600 million euros to build another decarbonization play, but which implies the purchase of real estate objective to improve. However, on the other hand, the Reneus property model means that it is positioned to benefit from any increase in real estate value, while the readjustment remains purely a service provider, but with much lower capital requirements to turn your business.
Stanzl says that while they developed the business, they considered to assume the property, which would also have meant having things as property and tenant management services, but decided that it was not essential for the energy transition mission. He also points out that commercial real estate owners may not want to sell their buildings, which would have created barriers for the scale.
Another element that is often associated with energy transitions is to improve the isolation of the building, since better insulation can be a blessing for energy system performance. When asked about this, Stanzl says that while they can provide it, they do not necessarily seek it, “again, since it can expand the complexity of the project.
They have also categorically decided not to get involved in cosmetic improvements in buildings.
“We are focused on energy, right? We want to look at the energy infrastructure and energy tissue, ”he emphasizes. “Then the problems [for target customers] They are more … how can we use the residual heat? How do you optimize that, along with cooling loads, less around ‘How to isolate the walls?’ “