OPTIMUSE raised €4 million to boost smart, cost-effective, eco-friendly construction

Austrian deep tech startup Optimuse has raised €4 million in seed funding led by seed + speed Ventures and Blum Ventures, with participation from existing investors Matterwave Ventures and Gründungsfonds. Founded in Vienna in 2021 by Dominik Pezzei, Fabian Pitscheider, and Felix Maximilian Hofer, the company has developed an AI platform that shows builders, developers, and planners which technical solutions for heating, cooling, ventilation, and building envelopes deliver optimal results in terms of costs and emissions for both new construction and renovation projects.

The platform uses existing plans and documents to create realistic digital building models, comparing thousands of variants to recommend the most economical and climate-friendly solutions with measurable results including 70% faster preliminary engineering, 10% lower construction costs through better selection and dimensioning, and 20% additional emission savings. Optimuse analyzes early designs using simulation, identifies variants with lower energy requirements, and precisely calculates optimal sizing of building services equipment to ensure systems are neither oversized nor undersized.

“Our AI solution provides clarity: it compares variants in a very short time and recommends the most sustainable and economical solution,” said Dominik Pezzei, Managing Director and co-founder of Optimuse. “This enables our customers to plan, transform, and operate buildings in a future-proof and cost-efficient manner.” The platform addresses increasing complexity in building design as technical requirements and regulations continue to evolve.

Alexander Kölpin, Managing Director at seed + speed Ventures, emphasized the practical applications: “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.”

The fresh capital will accelerate Optimuse’s internationalization and distribution of its AI solutions for engineering, renovation, and building operations. André Hammerer, Managing Director at Blum Ventures, noted: “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.”

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