Backing WALLROUND—renovation & decarbonisation platform for landlords
Backing WALLROUND—renovation & decarbonisation platform for landlords
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.
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Subscribe hereThe solution
WALLROUND is a single-touchpoint solution for landlords to manage property renovations, from analysis and preparation, through to actually executing the renovation projects themselves. Their platform provides a standardised, partly automated engine for property renovation and decarbonisation, allowing for much smoother and faster renovation.
WALLROUND has aspirations to transform the €390 billion EU residential building market that is overdue energy upgrading. They’re already servicing multi-unit freehold blocks (MFBs) in Berlin and Brandenberg, with new cities and regions set to launch in 2025.
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).
Why we’re excited to invest
Conny Reh, Venture Studio Lead at Founders Factory, says: “We’re excited to support WALLROUND, a startup seizing a major opportunity in the German retrofitting market. With EU regulations mandating energy upgrades by 2030 and rising carbon taxes, building owners face increasing pressure to improve efficiency. WALLROUND’s platform addresses this challenge head-on, offering a smart, tech-driven solution that makes retrofitting not only essential but financially attractive. This is a crucial moment to transform how multi-family buildings approach energy efficiency, and WALLROUND is perfectly positioned to lead the way.”
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
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