European regulators are pushing harder for greener energy. The REPowerEU plan calls for 10 million additional heat pumps by 2027, and solar panels are also on the rise.
However, most installations are done by smaller businesses that could be more productive with better work processes.
This is where German startup Reonic comes in. “We provide renewable energy installers with tools that can be extremely efficient, and we do this primarily by providing planning and workflow software,” says co-founder Tristan Menzinger (seated on the right in the photo above).
Menzinger, Lars-Manuel Schneider (seated in the middle in the photo above) and Udo Sill, a college classmate and third co-founder, all worked at research institutions studying renewable energy deployment. This sparked their interest in starting Reonic, but they needed to listen to real customers to bridge the gap between theory and knowledge. They concluded that installers needed end-to-end software, not separate tools.
Startups in other fields have come to similar conclusions, but it can be hard to sell to a target customer who has already developed habits. Reonic’s promise is to help installers sell faster and sell more, making it worthwhile. “For example, if you can combine a heat pump with a solar system, you double your sales,” Schneider said.
Unlike competitors with narrow niches like solar, Reonic’s focus is on renewable energy as a whole, whether it’s solar, energy storage systems, wall boxes or heat pumps. Beyond specific types of installations, the bigger goal is energy self-consumption in every home or business, Schneider said. “And that’s the core of our product, which always works the same, no matter where we are.”
The promise to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy appears to be resonating with investors. To expand its operations across Europe, Reonic has raised €13 million in a Series A funding round led by Northzone with participation from existing investors Point Nine and Puzzle Ventures.
This is consistent with VCs preferring climate-focused startups that face market risks due to their go-to-market strategy rather than the scientific risks of inventing new technologies.
Even then, market risks remain real. Aurora Solar, a U.S. company that provides software to help solar installers manage sales, laid off 20% of its roughly 500-person staff earlier this year after posting a $523 million loss.
But with just 21 team members and €16 million in funding to date, Reonic is more like smaller companies like Arch, Enerflo, Lun and Scoop Solar.
It also has the kind of growth you typically see in early-stage companies that find product-market fit, with the company saying its recurring revenue has tripled in the past six months alone. “We’ve had real momentum since we started three years ago, but we feel like we’re just getting started,” Schneider said.
While subsidies and other legal frameworks vary from country to country, Reonic’s internationalization is driven by the founders’ conviction that it can enter new markets without much customization. After the DACH region, it launched in France and has also had a soft launch in Italy, says Menzinger, who oversaw most of the process.
Although the company is still headquartered in Augsburg, Bavaria, about half of its employees work in Berlin. Earlier this year, it opened a second office in Berlin to better recruit international talent, a key part of its expansion plans that will be funded through this round of investment.
