Frankfurt am Main, 04. April 2022 –Tech start-up Preventio, developer of the first software solution to reliably predict building damages, receives €1.35 million in a pre-seed funding round. Preventio’s predictive maintenance platform uses artificial intelligence (AI) to forecast the risk of building damages.

The round is led by Futury Capital, an early-stage and growth investor focusing on tech start-ups. In addition, Andreas Haug, founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Headline, BMH Beteiligungs-Managementgesellschaft Hessen and prominent angel investors such as Christoph Benner, Marcus Laube and Alexander Jörger participated in the round.

Building damages, in particular tap water damages, leading to billions in damage costs and considerable water loss annually. These damages are one of the main cost drivers for the building sector and are expected to increase as many properties age. Preventio’s solution supports insurance companies, housing associations and pipe manufacturers in identifying risks and reducing damages.

The capital raised will be used to expand the research and development team and further enhance the predictive maintenance platform to transform the AI-based prototype into a scalable software-as-a-service (SaaS) application.

From a university research project into a tech start-up

Founded by three fellow students, Andreas Bechmann, Bledion Vladi and Frederic Büdel, Preventio started in 2021 as a research project at accadis University of Applied Sciences Bad Homburg in collaboration with companies from across the industry. At the beginning of 2022, Peter Yves Ruland joined the team as Co-Founder and CTO, who brings 20 years of experience from Microsoft and has already accompanied several tech start-ups in their development.

Sensorless approach makes Preventio’s solution unique

Unlike other providers, which rely predominantly on expensive sensors, Preventio’s AI solution can predict the probability of tap water damages by analysing various data points from historical damages. This eliminates the need to install sensors, allowing market participants to operate more efficiently and cost-effectively.

Preventio has already established a large data pool from various recognized industry partners, including Viega and Vonovia, continuously expanding and enriching with further relevant data. This data pool is the basis for more accurate and reliable damage predictions and allows better recommendations for the respective market players.

Industry insiders support Preventio’s approach

The Preventio innovation is already receiving considerable support in the real estate industry:

The approach contributes to the sustainable maintenance and value preservation of the building and the well-being of the residents. We are pleased to be a pilot partner of Preventio and support the start-up in this phase, explains Konstantina Kanellopoulos, Co-CEO of Deutsche Wohnen and Executive Vice President Value-Add at Vonovia.

„Water damages are among the highest repair claims in residential and commercial buildings. So far, there hasn’t been an opportunity to predict a potential failure in a piping system; only an actual failure could be registered. The data-driven solution allows us to analyze water use in buildings, forecast potential pipe failures, and work together with our contractors to create new revenue streams and avoid loss of rental income/usage and high repair costs for building owners”, says Christian Geisthof, VP Corporate Development at Viega LLC, the leading pipe manufacturer worldwide.

Preventio is „Sporthilfe Start-up of the Year 2021“

In 2021, Preventio was named “Sporthilfe Startup of the Year” by Deutsche Sporthilfe, Deutsche Kreditbank (DKB) and the Werte-Stiftung. One of the founders, Andreas Bechmann, is the U23 European decathlon champion and a track and field athlete for Eintracht Frankfurt.

We congratulate our scholarship holder Andreas Bechmann and his team on the successful financing round. The fact that and how he manages to implement his sports successes in business is highly impressive and the ideal example for Sporthilfe support, says Christian Seifert, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Sporthilfe and long-time Managing Director of the DFL German Football League.

This pre-seed round is a strong vote of confidence from investors for the potential of our solution. We share the vision, to empower industries by redefining predictive maintenance through creating intelligent systems based on understanding, analysing, and presenting data, share Andreas Bechmann and Peter Yves Ruland, Managing Directors of Preventio.

Water damages due to pipe leaks cost insurance and other companies billions of euros annually. Preventio is the only predictive maintenance player on the market who is tackling the problem of residential water damage with a purely data-driven approach. Within just one year, the team has developed from a university project into a tech start-up with a clear strategy and major names from the industry as pilot customers, says Shahin Dashti, Investment Manager at Futury Capital.

Preventio pursues an innovative approach with the developed predictive maintenance technology to manage a complex problem such as building damages. I am convinced that the team’s strategic approach to cooperate with established companies from the real estate ecosystem is forward-looking and mutually beneficial. This way, Preventio’s partners can realize significant cost reductions and optimize existing business processes, says Headline founder Andreas Haug, who is also a personal mentor of the founder and CEO of Preventio, Andreas Bechmann.

Barbara Spitzenberg, the responsible investment manager at BMH, says: Preventio addresses an enormously large target market in the area of damage prediction with its AI-based technology developed in Hesse. The founding team is entrepreneurially experienced, has an extensive network, and fully convinced us with a solid business plan. We see enormous potential here, so BMH is happy to support Preventio in its planned growth steps with capital and know-how.

Preventio plans to expand its core team and create additional jobs in Frankfurt. Data scientists and software developers are particularly sought for this purpose.

About Preventio

Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Frankfurt, Preventio develops AI-based software solutions to predict and prevent building damages. With the vision Predicting the World. Together, Preventio believes that the risk of building damages can be reduced drastically with the technologies available. As a fellow of the Impact Factory, a private grant supporting social and sustainable start-ups, Preventio pursues the UN Sustainable Development Goals 3, 9 and 11 by contributing to sustainable solutions for cities and industry and reducing waste of resources, especially water.

About Futury Capital

Futury Capital is an early- and growth-stage investor focusing on tech start-ups in Germany and worldwide. The investment universe covers multiple industries such as technology, software, consumer internet, artificial intelligence, adtech, fintech and more, supporting companies to accelerate their growth and entrepreneurs to become global leaders. Through the LP structure from the state of Hesse, Family Offices, German SMEs, and multinational corporates, Futury Capital supports its portfolio companies both strategically and operationally to build exceptional companies.

About BMH Hessen

BMH Beteiligungs-Managementgesellschaft Hessen mbH (“BMH”), based in Wiesbaden, was founded in 2001 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen Girozentrale (Helaba). Through Wirtschafts- und Infrastrukturbank Hessen (WIBank), BMH is actively involved in the economic development of the State of Hesse. As a medium-sized investment and venture capital company, BMH bundles public investment interests and financing instruments for early-stage, growth, and medium-sized companies in Hesse. BMH currently manages seven investment funds with around 125 million euros invested investment volume. Since its foundation, BMH has invested over 250 million euros in a total of more than 500 companies. Investment focuses include the software & IT, life sciences, mechanical and plant engineering, industrial goods, professional services, and e-commerce sectors. Here you find more information about BMH and its funds.

Press Contact:

Bledion Vladi
bledion@preventio.de
+49 151 70400829

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