This Munich Startup Just Raised $4M to Slash Your Power Bill

Jan de Vries · 2026-09-11

### The Raise That Could Change Industrial Energy Furo, a Munich-based energy software company, just closed a $4 million funding round. The round was led by US investor TQ Ventures, with participation from Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners — Sheryl Sandberg's fund — as well as Neo and CDTM Venture Capital. But here's the thing: this isn't just another funding announcement. It's a bet on a specific idea — that software, not hardware, will decide who wins in the energy transition. ### Why Software Beats Hardware in Battery Storage "Our customers did not buy a battery in order to own a technology, but in order to lower their electricity bill," says Lena Sophia Voß, co-founder of Furo. "In one of the most volatile power markets in the world, that is decided by the software, not by the hardware." That's the whole thesis in one sentence. Most industrial battery installations today run on rigid, pre-programmed rules. They charge and discharge on a schedule, blind to what's actually happening with weather and prices. Furo's platform works differently. It forecasts power prices and weather up to 48 hours ahead, then decides in real time when a storage system should charge, release, or sell power. The result, according to the company: customers cut electricity costs by up to 40%. ### How Furo Actually Works Furo was founded in 2025 as Lumera Energy by Voß, Leonie Wagner, and Simon Wittner — three founders who met at the Centre for Digital Technology and Management (CDTM) in Munich. The company doesn't sell directly to end customers. Instead, it partners with installers, project developers, storage manufacturers, and utilities. More than 800 companies use the platform across over 6,000 sites in Germany and Europe. The platform adapts to each partner's role, from system sizing to asset operation to marketing unused capacity in energy trading. ### The Bigger Picture: Why This Matters Global energy demand from AI data centers is rising sharply. That hits energy-intensive industrial companies hardest — especially in Germany, where electricity prices are among the highest in the world. Inflexible energy demand costs industrial companies an estimated $580 billion a year worldwide. The cause isn't renewable energy itself. It's price volatility, high grid fees, load peaks, and a lack of flexibility in consumption. Battery storage solves part of the problem by storing surplus solar or wind power and releasing it when needed. But without smart software, most batteries sit on the sidelines when they could be making money. ### What Investors See "Lena, Leonie and Simon understand the European energy market at an extraordinary level of depth," says Schuster Tanger, co-founding partner at TQ Ventures. "It's a remarkable example of team-market fit." He adds that the global market for storage flexibility is 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 systems. The company also rebranded from Lumera Energy in May 2026. The takeaway? In a world of volatile energy prices, the winners won't be the ones with the biggest batteries. They'll be the ones with the smartest software.