Munich Startup Furo Raises $4M to Slash Industrial Energy Bills

Jan de Vries · 2026-09-11

### The $4 Million Bet on Smarter Batteries Furo, a Munich-based energy software company formerly known as Lumera Energy, just closed a €3.44 million ($4 million) funding round. The round was led by US investor TQ Ventures, with participation from Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners (Sheryl Sandberg's fund), Neo, and CDTM Venture Capital. Why does this matter? Because Furo isn't selling batteries. It's selling the brains that make batteries actually pay off. And in a world where industrial energy costs are skyrocketing, that's a very big deal. ### Software That Turns Batteries Into Cash Machines Here's the problem Furo is solving: most industrial battery storage systems run on rigid, pre-programmed rules. They charge and discharge based on a schedule, not on what's actually happening with weather or electricity prices. 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 unused capacity back to the grid. The result? Customers can cut their electricity costs by up to 40 percent. That's not a rounding error. For energy-intensive factories, it's the difference between staying competitive and shutting down. ### From a Master's Program to 6,000 Sites 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) of LMU Munich and the Technical University of Munich. Fast forward to today: more than 800 companies use Furo across over 6,000 sites in Germany and Europe. The platform adapts to different roles, from system sizing to asset operation to energy trading. > "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." — Lena Sophia Voß, co-founder of Furo ### Why Germany Is the Perfect Testing Ground Germany has some of the highest electricity prices in the world. Its power market is also one of the most volatile, thanks to the rapid build-out of wind and solar energy. That volatility is a double-edged sword. It creates opportunity, but only if you can predict and react to it. Static battery systems are blind to these fluctuations. Furo's forecasting module prices them in. Globally, inflexible energy demand costs industrial companies an estimated $580 billion a year. The culprit isn't renewable energy itself. It's price volatility, high grid fees, load peaks, and a lack of flexibility in consumption. ### What's Next for Furo The new funding will help Furo further develop its software, expand into additional European markets, and grow its team. 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. Schuster Tanger, co-founding partner at TQ Ventures, put it bluntly: "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." For US readers watching the European energy transition, Furo is a name worth remembering. The company is proving that the real value in battery storage isn't the hardware. It's the intelligence layer on top.