The problem

Leaky housing stock is one of the principal sources of carbon emissions across Europe. In order to reach the EU’s 2045 net zero goals, at least 2% of buildings have to undergo renovations and retrofitting every year. 

We’re currently falling some way short of that target—less than 0.8%. Large landlords with vast portfolios are lifting up the average meaning that, for private landlords, this is likely even lower.

So why is this? For one, incumbent landlords are not efficient at renovating their properties. A large number of these operators are super small, poorly managed companies, meaning that the speed needed to renovate simply does not exist. Many of these landlords, and the processes they’re using to upgrade their properties, are stuck using antiquated, chaotic processes. Digitisation is seriously lacking. Moreover, guidance and support around renovations is confusing and difficult to access, and often too expensive to really incentivise action.

On the other side, participating contractors and construction businesses required to complete renovations are highly fragmented. Each stage of the process, from gathering building data to planning and eventually construction, is managed individually and manually.

The team

Lukas Steinhilber (CEO & Co-Founder)

Lukas is a second-time founder and seasoned tech expert. He previously founded Vehiculum, an online marketplace for car leasing, for which he raised over €15M and eventually led to acquisition in 2021. More recently, he was Chief Commercial Officer at FSG Berlin, supporting international D2C brands to launch in Germany. 

Henning von Oesen (MD & Co-Founder) 

Henning brings over a decade of experience in property and real estate. He’s spent over 4 years at KVL Group, a major construction and real estate consulting business in Germany, as a project manager. Prior to this, he’s held numerous project management roles, building on a master’s degree in real estate project management. 

Tatiana Wotzasek (CPO & Co-Founder)

Tatiana is an experienced product manager having held various product roles across industries including health, transport, and legal tech. She was Head of Product at Rocket Internet, as well as a role as Head of Digital at Cetelem (the personal finance brand owned by BNP Paribas).  

What Wallround is looking to get out of the partnership

• Improving our product—with the help of the Founders Factory Team improve the user experience of our product significantly. 

• Learning from Vonovia’s experience of undergoing energetic retrofitting at scale 

• Accelerating growth—our initial GTM worked, but now we want to double down on smart and efficient customer acquisition strategies to accelerate growth