We’re excited to announce the latest venture to spin out of our Nesta Mission Studio—Renbee.
The problem
The UK is plagued by a leaky housing stock. Around 30% of carbon emissions come from our existing housing stock. New energy efficiency standards and broader awareness of the cost of heating your home has created much greater demand for upgrading and decarbonisation of homes.
But any progress faces a huge bottleneck—not only because there are simply not enough installers, but that the existing installers are slowed down by cumbersome and bureaucratic processes. Homeowners who do have the money to decarbonise their homes face lengthy waiting times.
The solution
Renbee is looking to streamline the process of home decarbonisation for homeowners and installers alike. Their motto—’Less paperwork, more jobs’—is looking to accelerate the time consuming processes which are a hindrance to productivity, instead creating a far more efficient market to help the UK meet its decarbonisation targets.
For installers, they are building out a comprehensive platform of software solutions that will solve their real pain points, helping streamline everything from lead generation and sales conversion through to material orders and financing, payment, and payroll.
For homeowners, they’ll have access to a trusted marketplace of installers, as well as a range of financing options to help fund their project, whether that’s installing heat pumps or other renewable technologies.
The team
Tejus Patel (CEO & Founder)
Hailing from an engineering background, Tej brings years of experience working at top multinationals in consulting, engineering, and fintech. He spent five years at Rolls Royce, before moving to McKinsey, where he worked up to the role of Associate Partner. His most recent role was at Revolut, where he was a General Manager.
Andrei Gheorge (CTO & Co-Founder)
Andrei brings over two decades of technical experience to his role as CTO. He spent four and a half years at Founders Factory, where for most of the time he was Head of Engineering. Prior to this, he held a number of developer roles including at Intel.
Why we’re excited to invest
Lizzie Hindocha, sector director for Mission Studio, says: "We're excited to support Renbee in their mission to make net zero home retrofits accessible for everyone. Founders Tej (ex Revolut, McKinsey and Laing O'Rourke) and Andrei (ex Founders Factory, Docusign and Intel) have already onboarded over 100 low carbon renewables installers across the UK onto their time-saving B2B SaaS product in just 2 months, showing a level of vision, execution focus and momentum that sets them apart in a hotly contested space."
"Next on the roadmap for the team is helping installers grow their businesses by connecting them with homeowners and financing, with Renbee enabling enhanced guarantees and lowering project risks that can unlock dormant retrofit demand domestically and abroad."
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