Furo, an AI-powered software platform optimizing battery storage across industrial and commercial energy markets, has raised $4 million in funding led by TQ Ventures, with participation from Neo, Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners and CDTM Venture Capital. The platform determines when batteries should charge, discharge and trade energy, helping customers reduce electricity costs by up to 40%.
Optimizing Battery Storage With AI
Furo addresses inefficiencies in battery systems that rely on static, rule-based software. The AI agent forecasts energy prices, weather and site-specific consumption up to 48 hours ahead, then coordinates peak shaving, self-consumption, tariff arbitrage, grid fee reduction, energy trading and backup power.
"Inflexible energy demand costs industrial companies an estimated $580 billion globally every year," said Lena Sophia Voß, co-founder of Furo. “Furo exists to turn every battery into an intelligent, revenue-generating asset and give companies that money back."
Furo is distributed through more than 800 installers, developers, storage manufacturers and utilities and operates across over 5,000 industrial sites. Partners including BayWa are achieving battery payback periods below five years, compared with previous estimates of ten to 15 years.
"Our industrial and commercial customers aren't buying technology, they want to lower their electricity costs. With Furo's software platform, we can deliver on exactly that promise: from system planning and operational optimization to trading surplus capacity, Furo gives us the decisive competitive edge in our commercial & industrial segment. We and our customers gain full transparency into what our battery is actually doing and why. We can already see that difference in sales and have significantly more storage projects today than we did a year ago," said Ben Rohloff, Director Commercial & Industrial, Enpal.
Preparing for US Expansion
Furo was founded by Lena Sophia Voß, Leonie Wagner and Simon Wittner, with backgrounds at the Technical University of Munich, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Google X, Apple and AI startups. Experience gained in Germany’s volatile energy market is now supporting preparations for expansion into the US.
"Lena, Leonie and Simon understand the European energy market at an extraordinary level of depth. It's a remarkable example of team-market fit. Together, they bring exceptional technical depth and operational experience in Europe's most complex power market. That's already reflected in the number of projects and the data they've built up. 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,” said Schuster Tanger, co-founding partner at TQ Ventures.