European regulators are pushing for greener energy. The REPowerEU plan calls for an additional 10 million heat pumps by 2027, and solar panels are also in high demand.
But most installations are done by small companies that could be more productive with better work processes.
This is where the German startup starts. Reonic “We provide renewable energy installers with the tools to be more efficient, and we do this primarily by providing them with planning and workflow software,” said co-founder Tristan Menzinger (seated right in the photo above).
Menzinger, Lars-Manuel Schneider (pictured above, center) and their university colleague and third co-founder, Udo Seel, were all working at a research institute exploring renewable energy deployment. That sparked their interest in founding Reonic, but they had to listen to real customers to bridge the gap between theory and knowledge. They concluded that installers needed integrated software, not separate tools.
Startups in other sectors have found a similar result, but it can be a tough sell when the target audience already has established habits. Reonic’s promise is to make it worthwhile by helping installers sell faster, and sell more. “The ability to combine heat pumps, for example, with solar systems, multiplies sales volume,” Schneider said.
Unlike some competitors who work in narrower areas, such as solar, Reunic focuses on renewable energy as a whole, whether it’s photovoltaics, energy storage systems, wall boxes or heat pumps. Beyond a specific type of installation, the larger goal they see is self-consumption for every home or business, Schneider said. “That’s something at the core of our product that always works the same way, no matter where we are.”
The promise of accelerating renewable energy adoption seems to be resonating with investors; in a bid to expand across Europe, Reonic has just raised €13 million in a Series A funding round led by Northzone, with participation from existing investors Point Nine and Puzzle Ventures.
This is consistent with the preference shown by venture capital firms for climate-focused startups that face market risks with their go-to-market strategy, as opposed to scientific risks arising from inventing a new technology.
But even then, market risks remain. Aurora Solar, a U.S. company that provides software to help solar installers manage their sales, laid off 20% of its roughly 500 employees earlier this year after losing $523 million.
But with 21 team members so far and €16 million in funding so far, Reonic is closer to smaller companies like Arch, EnerflowColor and Solar Scope.
The company is also seeing growth typical of early-stage companies that have found some product-market fit, with its recurring revenue tripling in the past six months alone, the company says. “While we’ve had some real momentum since we started three years ago, it really feels like we’re just getting started,” Schneider said.
While subsidies and other legal frameworks vary from country to country, Reunic’s internationalization is driven by its founders’ belief that it can enter new markets without much customization. After the DACH region, it launched in France and also launched on a pilot basis in Italy, says Menzinger, who oversaw much of the process.
The company’s headquarters are still in Augsburg, Bavaria, but about half of its employees are based in Berlin, where it opened a second office earlier this year to more easily recruit international talent — another important piece of the expansion that the new round will help fund.