alcemy closes Series A funding round: 10 million for decarbonisation of the cement and concrete industry

Berlin, 09/09/2022 – More sustainable concrete and cement as a standard in construction: The Berlin-based startup alcemy received 10 million Euros for its Series A funding. The new investors include prestigious climate tech funds and, for the first time, industry leaders from construction and real estate. The financing round is led by Galvanize Climate Solutions, a climate focused investment platform founded by Katie Hall and Tom Steyer. Other investors include AENU, the impact fund of Ferry and Fabian Heilemann brothers, which supports ClimateTech companies and social enterprises.

In addition, construction and real estate investors such as BitStone Capital, MOMENI Ventures and E.R. Capital Holding are contributing to pushing the adaptation of more sustainable concrete in the industry. The funding round is completed by additional investments from Tobias Nendel as well as the Flixbus founders and all existing investors such as EF, La Famiglia, Firstminute Capital and LocalGlobe.

The capital will be used to facilitate the growth of the software development team for machine learning, to establish a sales team, and to further expand.

Securing the future of the cement and concrete industry with technology

The cement and concrete industry is one of the most impactful carbon producers in the world – cement, the most important ingredient in concrete, is responsible for about eight percent of the world’s CO2 emissions. As the demand for concrete as a construction material will continue to increase, the industry faces several challenges. It needs to decarbonise and comply with regulatory requirements, such as the EU Emissions Trading System for cement, as well as provide sustainable alternatives for builders and constructors to use.

With its products, the alcemy team specifically addresses the two major pain points of facing the industry: Reducing the high CO2 emissions and the enormous consumption of primary resources through the extraction of sand and gravel.

“We founded alcemy with the vision that more sustainable types of cement and concrete are no longer just theoretical considerations, but can be used in practice — quickly and on a mass scale. But to achieve this goal, close and continuous quality monitoring of these more sensitive types of concrete and cement is needed, which we as a company deliver with our software,”

says Leopold Spenner, co-founder and CEO of alcemy.

During the production, the alcemy solution saves up to 50 percent CO2 compared to the predecessor. In 2021 alone, the startup, together with customers, reduced 80,000 tonnes of CO2. At the same time, alcemy’s software enables companies to produce more concrete using recycled ingredients precisely and safely. Numerous customers already rely on the solution, including some of Germany’s renowned industry giants.

“I have known the concrete and cement industry since childhood, as my family is already the third generation to run concrete and cement plants. It is great to see that there is so much interest in this important topic and in our solution. We are pleased that we convinced numerous customers, as well as our investors to support us. With this successful funding round, we not only built a foundation for the future of our company, but also for our planet.

About alcemy:

The Berlin-based startup alcemy was founded in 2018 by Leopold Spenner and Dr Robert Meyer. Their vision: to bring the concrete and cement industry into a new, digital and greener age. To fulfill this vision, the young company uses machine learning and control technology to predict the quality properties of cement and concrete. Through robust data and smart algorithms, alcemy offers elevant insights along the entire value chain in real time – from the cradle at cement grinding to the processing of the concrete on the construction site. In this way, the handcrafted natural product becomes a data-based high-tech product. With alcemy’s solution, companies in the most emission-intensive industry benefit from higher quality, lower production costs and massive CO2 savings.

Plancraft receives seed funding & subsidies to digitize the craft industry


Hamburg, September 07, 2022 – The SaaS start-up Plancraft receives €1.9 million from institutional investors in its seed financing round and further €200,000 in subsidies. The Hamburg-based trio of founders is thus firing up the marketing of its invoicing software, which is focused on simplicity, in the craft market, which has been little digitalized to date. The vision behind Plancraft is getting closer: to create the basis for businesses to be economically successful.

Enormous potential in construction and trades

In Germany, approximately 500,000 craft businesses work in the construction and finishing trades1. A large proportion of these are equipped with IT solutions that, technologically speaking, date from the last three decades. A shortage of skilled workers and demographic change are increasing the pressure on companies to become more efficient. Founder and idea generator Alexander Noll experienced first-hand in his father’s carpentry shop near Hamburg which basic processes are crucial and where craftsmen:inside lose valuable time.

“When a quotation takes several hours to complete, people in the businesses suffer enormous stress and can’t concentrate on their craft”,

Alexander Noll reports.

Funding to enable scaling

With a web application for office work designed for user-friendliness, Plancraft is now bringing a breath of fresh air to the trade, which is not very digital in places. In order to actively shape the digital transformation of the industry, the Plancraft team now secured €1.9 million in seed funding, following initial federal funding in 2020 and an angel investment in 2021.

“A very motivated team, a simple product as well as one that is in demand by customers, and a potentially gigantic market convinced us. Plancraft has prepared to scale and we are happy to be on board.”

Louis Heinz, Senior Investment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds, summarizes the investment decision. In addition to existing investors and HTGF, three other VC companies BitStone Capital, XDECK and realPACE invested. The Hamburger Investitions und Förderbank is supporting the innovative start-up with a further 200,000 euros as part of the InnoFinTech funding program.

Modern technologies for contemporary work

In times of greater networking and new work culture, the need for flexible and decentralized working is growing. With their approach, the Plancraft team focuses, on the one hand, on reducing the technical burden for the chronically overburdened target group. By eliminating the need for an initial installation or manual updates, new technological foundations are created in the companies thanks to the cloud. Second, users can work on their preferred devices, whether tablet computers, Apple laptops or smartphones.

“We all depend on the skilled trades, today and especially in a climate-friendly future. With the help of the new capital, our team can now provide the thousands of small businesses with a modern tool,”

announced Julian Wiedenhaus, co-founder and CEO of Plancraft.

About Plancraft

Plancraft enables craftspeople to focus on what they love. With apps designed for user-friendliness, Plancraft makes office work easier and saves valuable working time when calculating quotations, writing invoices or communicating with employees. The cloud-based app impresses small craft businesses with its unparalleled performance and is the only tool that is fully optimized for use on tablet devices. With a starting price of 29 euros per month, large investments in IT are the past and thus support the urgently needed start-up culture in the skilled trades. Already in 2019, the three founders Alexander Noll, Richard Keil and Julian Wiedenhaus found together. Meanwhile, about 16 employees at Plancraft GmbH pursue the common mission: “Less office. More craftsmanship.”

Energy startup node.energy receives €7 million in Series A financing round

Frankfurt am Main, 27.07.2022 – A total of four new investors are joining the company, and existing investors such as High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and renowned business angels are once again contributing fresh capital.

The selection of the four new investors of the Series A took place thereby completely consciously. The financing 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 the impact investor BonVenture a clear focus on sustainability. As an international investor from the energy industry, 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 on the task of fulfilling the numerous bureaucratic requirements in particular: Billing, tax forms and notifications to authorities can be easily created automatically by plant operators with opti.node. The software is already being used to manage around 10,000 wind energy and solar plants, making node.energy the market leader in Germany.

However, for Matthias Karger, founder and CEO of node.energy, this is just the beginning:

“The future energy supply will be based on millions of renewable energy systems and every major building will also be a power plant at the same time. Many new providers such as real estate managers and citizen energy cooperatives are driving the 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.”

“Rising energy and CO2 prices and the desire for security of supply make renewable energy plants more attractive than ever for real estate. node.energy makes it easy for professional owners to evaluate this potential and operate the plants successfully and in a legally secure manner. I am pleased to support the team in this socially important task”,

explains Marc Stilke, Venture Partner at BitStone Capital and future Chairman of the Advisory Board at node.energy.

Therefore, node.energy will invest the seven million euros received in the Series-A in the further development of the software. The goal is to build a comprehensive software platform that enables professional plant 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. For this purpose, the software will be enhanced with additional functions and expanded into an end-to-end solution platform.

About node.energy:

Based in Frankfurt am Main, node.energy GmbH 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. In 2020, node.energy was honored with the Handelsblatt Energy Awards. Currently, node.energy employs about 50 people.

BitStone Capital wins further innovation drivers of the real estate industry as investors

With Famos Immobilien and the Pflugfelder Unternehmensgruppe, the Real Estate & Construction Tech Venture Fund expands its circle of industry experts

Cologne, 14th of June 2022: BitStone Capital was again able to attract established industry experts for the Real Estate & Construction Tech Fund: Famos Immobilien, the real estate company of the Otten family, and Pflugfelder Unternehmensgruppe, a family-run project developer and real estate service provider from Stuttgart, have joined the fund’s group of investors, along with other industry experts. BitStone Capital thus once again expands its exceptional network of leading construction and real estate players from Germany as well as the available capital of the fund.

      Manfred Heid und Kai Panitzki (left to right), Managing Partners of BitStone Capital. 

With the Real Estate & Construction Tech Fund, BitStone Capital has been able to invest in pioneering PropTech & Construction Tech start-ups such as aedifion, Aeditive, Doozer, Plan4, smino and upmin in the “Seed” to “Series A” phase.

BitStone Capital investors and partners already include leading entrepreneurs and innovation drivers from all sectors of the German real estate & construction industry, including Art-Invest Real Estate, Daniel Arnold, the founder of Deutsche Reihenhaus, Dr. Hettich BeteiligungenFMC Real TechGoldbeck, the Knauf family, Landmarken AG, Sahle Wohnen, Sontowski & Partner and Zech Group, as well as industry experts Jan Bettink, Alexander Hesse, Jürgen Probst, Marc Stilke and Mario Caroli

“We are very pleased that we were able to expand the investor base of our Real Estate & Construction Tech fund once more. Especially because we were once again able to attract two family-owned industry companies, which further strengthens our positioning in the PropTech market,” notes Kai Panitzki, Managing Partner of BitStone Capital.

About BitStone Capital

BitStone Capital is a venture capital investor focusing on innovative and sustainable technology companies in the real estate and construction sector. Beyond financing, BitStone Capital catalyzes the growth of its Real Estate- and Construction-Tech portfolio companies with its extensive network, unique industry know-how and -access, as well as specific expertise in new technologies. With its investments, BitStone Capital strives to make a contribution to the sustainable and future-proof transformation of the real estate and construction industry.

PLAN4 receives 3 million euros to accelerate climate-friendly renovation of existing buildings

  • Shareholders invest another 3 million euros
  • Exploding demand for BuildingCheck, especially among public building owners
  • Solving the renovation backlog to achieve climate targets

Today, the Freiburg-based startup PLAN4 Software announced the completion of a 3 million euro financing round. Capital providers are the previous investors BitStone Capital, Sprengnetter GmbH and Rudolf Müller Medienholding GmbH & Co. KG, Caitano Capital GmbH and several business angels.

With the help of the new financing round, PLAN4 Software GmbH is responding to the exploding demand for their digital tool “GebäudeCheck”. The tool enables customers to conveniently calculate their renovation needs, renovation costs and the associated CO2 savings within a very short time. Last year, the young startup company from Freiburg was already able to increase sales fivefold compared to the previous year.

“Today, we already serve 60 cities and municipalities with our software solution,” explains Thorsten Harig, CEO of PLAN4. “With the new round of financing, we will expand our capacities so that we can respond to the permanently increasing demand,” Harig continues.

By way of background, reducing CO2 emissions from the building stock plays a key role in Germany’s climate policy. Today, 35 percent of the final energy demand in Germany is attributable to the building sector. At the current renovation rate of around one percent, the climate targets cannot be achieved. A higher renovation rate can only be achieved by using digital tools such as PLAN4’s “Building Check”.

PLAN4 Software GmbH is a start-up company from Freiburg im Breisgau. With the tool “GebäudeCheck” developed in Germany, the young innovative company has specialized in the digital evaluation of the renovation effort of existing buildings. With a time saving of about 50 percent compared to conventional methods, customers find out in which condition the building is and with which priority the respective renovation steps have to be initiated. Regional differences, among other things, are also taken into account in the assessment.

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