Munich Startup Furo Just Raised $4 Million—Here's Why It Matters

Jan de Vries · 2026-09-11

Furo, a Munich-based energy software company formerly known as Lumera Energy, just closed a €3.44 million ($4 million) funding round. The goal? Make industrial battery storage actually pay off for the companies using it. The round was led by US investor TQ Ventures, with participation from Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners—that's Sheryl Sandberg's fund—along with Neo and CDTM Venture Capital. Not a bad lineup for a company founded just last year. ### The Team Behind Furo Furo was founded in 2025 by Lena Sophia Voß, Leonie Wagner, and Simon Wittner. The three met during a joint master's program at the Centre for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM), a collaboration between LMU Munich and the Technical University of Munich. So yeah, they know their stuff. Their pitch is simple: batteries are hardware, but the real value comes from software. As Voß puts it, "Our customers did not buy a battery in order to own a technology, but in order to lower their electricity bill. In one of the most volatile power markets in the world, that is decided by the software, not by the hardware." ### How It Works Furo's platform forecasts power prices and weather up to 48 hours ahead. Then it optimizes battery operation in real time—deciding when to charge, when to release power, and when to sell excess capacity on energy markets. The company says this can cut electricity costs by up to 40%. The software isn't sold directly to end users. Instead, it goes through installers, project developers, storage manufacturers, and utilities. More than 800 companies already use it across over 6,000 sites in Germany and Europe. Why does this matter? Global energy demand from AI data centers is skyrocketing, and industrial companies are feeling the pinch—especially in Germany, where electricity prices are among the highest in the world. Battery storage helps by storing surplus solar or wind power, but most systems still run on rigid, pre-programmed rules that ignore real-time price swings. Furo's forecasting module prices in those fluctuations. Static systems don't. ### The Bigger Picture Inflexible energy demand costs industrial companies an estimated $580 billion a year worldwide. The problem isn't renewable energy itself—it's price volatility, high grid fees, load peaks, and a lack of flexibility in consumption. Schuster Tanger, co-founding partner at TQ Ventures, sees huge potential: "Lena, Leonie and Simon understand the European energy market at an extraordinary level of depth. It's a remarkable example of team-market fit... Coupled with a global market for storage flexibility set to multiply in the coming years, we see this as one of the greatest opportunities in Europe and beyond." Earlier this month, Furo announced a partnership with Berlin-based LUOX Energy to launch a combined solution for optimizing commercial and industrial battery storage. And in May 2026, the company rebranded from Lumera Energy to Furo. With this fresh funding, Furo plans to further develop its software, expand into more European markets, and grow its team. For an industry facing volatile prices and rising demand, that's a bet worth watching.