Frank­furt a. M. — From four new inves­tors and exis­ting inves­tors such as the High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) and renow­ned busi­ness angels node.energy raises Euro 7 million in fresh capi­tal. The selec­tion of the four new Series‑A inves­tors was quite deli­be­rate. For exam­ple, the funding round is led by Colo­­gne-based VC BitStone Capi­tal, the leading PropTech fund with strong exper­tise in the real estate indus­try. As co-inves­­tors, 10x Foun­ders brings exten­sive expe­ri­ence in the soft­­ware-as-a-service sector and impact inves­tor BonVen­ture brings a clear sustaina­bi­lity focus. As an inter­na­tio­nal inves­tor from the energy sector, Helen Ventures from Finland is also parti­ci­pa­ting in the finan­cing round.

The soft­ware “opti.node” deve­lo­ped by node.energy simpli­fies the manage­ment of wind and solar plants. As the “digi­tal lubri­cant of the energy turn­around”, opti.node takes over the fulfill­ment of nume­rous bureau­cra­tic requi­re­ments in parti­cu­lar: With opti.node, plant opera­tors can easily auto­mate the crea­tion of invoices, tax forms and noti­fi­ca­ti­ons to the autho­ri­ties. The soft­ware is alre­ady being used to manage around 10,000 wind energy and solar plants. node.energy is thus the market leader in Germany.

“The future energy supply will be based on milli­ons of rene­wa­ble energy plants, and every major buil­ding will also be a power plant. Many new provi­ders, such as property mana­gers and citi­zen energy coope­ra­ti­ves, are driving change with new busi­ness models. In doing so, they are regu­larly confron­ted with the compli­ca­ted rules and bureau­cra­tic requi­re­ments of the energy market. This results in enorm­ous market poten­tial and further growth oppor­tu­ni­ties for us,” explains Matthias Karger, foun­der and mana­ging direc­tor of node.energy

“Rising energy and CO2 prices and the desire for secu­rity of supply are making rene­wa­ble energy instal­la­ti­ons for real estate more attrac­tive than ever. node.energy makes it easy for profes­sio­nal owners to evaluate this poten­tial and to operate the plants successfully and legally compli­ant. I am plea­sed to support the team in this soci­ally important task,” says Marc Stilke, Venture Part­ner at BitStone Capi­tal and future Chair­man of the Advi­sory Board at node.energy

node.energy will ther­e­fore invest the seven million euros recei­ved in Series A in the further deve­lo­p­ment of the soft­ware. The goal is to build a compre­hen­sive soft­ware plat­form that enables profes­sio­nal system opera­tors from the commer­cial and real estate sectors to easily imple­ment new busi­ness models such as solar power direct deli­veries (e.g. tenant power or power purchase agreements/PPAs) and self-supply. To this end, the soft­ware is being enhan­ced with addi­tio­nal func­tions and expan­ded into an end-to-end solu­tion platform.

About node.energy

node.energy GmbH, based in Frank­furt am Main, is a fast-growing company working towards a sustainable energy future. node.energy was foun­ded in 2016 by Matthias Karger and Lars Rinn and deve­lops and distri­bu­tes the SaaS solu­tion “opti.node” for profes­sio­nal opera­tors of rene­wa­ble energy plants. More than 9,500 wind turbi­nes in over 2,500 wind and solar farms as well as more than 400 commer­cial and indus­trial proper­ties are alre­ady using opti.node. 2020 node.energy was awarded the Handels­blatt Energy Awards. Curr­ently, node.energy employs about 50 people.

About High-Tech Gründerfonds

The seed inves­tor High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF) finan­ces tech­no­logy start-ups with growth poten­tial. With a volume of around EUR 900 million spread across three funds and an inter­na­tio­nal part­ner network, HTGF has supported more than 670 start-ups since 2005. With the launch of HTGF IV, more than EUR 400 million in fund volume will be added in the fall of 2022. The team of expe­ri­en­ced invest­ment mana­gers and start-up experts supports the young compa­nies with know-how, entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and passion. The focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digi­tal tech, indus­trial tech, life scien­ces, chemis­try and rela­ted busi­ness areas. More than €4 billion in capi­tal has been inves­ted in the HTGF port­fo­lio by exter­nal inves­tors in more than 1,900 follow-on finan­cing rounds to date. In addi­tion, the fund has alre­ady successfully sold shares in more than 160 companies.

The fund inves­tors in the public-private part­ner­ship include the German Fede­ral Minis­try for Econo­mic Affairs and Climate Protec­tion, KfW Capi­tal, the Fraun­ho­­fer-Gesel­l­­schaft and nume­rous compa­nies from a wide range of industries.