Germany’s Nemetschek Group, a leading global software provider for the AEC/O and media & entertainment industries, has announced this month they have invested in the start-up Preoptima, a carbon hub for the built environment.
This latest investment is another advancement in the Group’s venture strategy of driving sustainability and innovation in the construction industry.
World First Carbon Hub
Preoptima software aims to drive radical reductions in carbon in the built environment globally. The specifics of the funding will be to support the launch of the company’s WholeLifeCarbon API (application programming interface), which will allow software applications in the AEC/O space that integrate the API to produce uniquely accurate carbon calculations.
Key Takeaway: Preoptima’s world-first carbon hub for the built environment is powered by AI and generative design. Its technology emerges from seminal research by two University of Cambridge PhDs. This is pre-seed round funding and included several other investors besides the Nemetschek Group.
The WorldLifeCarbon API will complement and extend their current products, which use generative design and AI to optimize carbon emissions from the earliest stages of building design.
Nemetschek Group invests in the UK-based startup Preoptima, a carbon hub for the built environment.
“Worldwide, more than half of all people live in cities. At the same time, buildings are now responsible for 37% of global CO2 emissions. As urbanization continues, this trend will intensify. The construction industry must act and decarbonize its value chain”, states László Vértesi, Head of Industry Solutions Planning & Design Division at the Nemetschek Group. “Preoptima provides real value to our core market, the building design community, by enabling a precise assessment of the full carbon impact of projects in the early design phase,” he adds.
“Preoptima’s mission is to radically reduce CO2 emissions from the built environment, which is one of the most impactful levers for reducing emissions globally. By using generative artificial intelligence at the intersection of architecture and engineering, our solutions offer a new approach to tackling the issue of decarbonizing a whole industry,” said Aileen Ryan, co-founder and CEO of Preoptima.”
Key Facts include:
- Preoptima has developed a world-first carbon hub for the built environment—powered by AI and generative design and covering the entire building lifecycle.
- Their solution provides accurate carbon calculations at the intersection of architecture and engineering.
- Nemetschek Group led the investment round, strengthening its positioning as a driver for more sustainability in the industry.
Rise of Preoptima
Since its rise in the 2H of 2022, Preoptima rapidly gained recognition and visibility. It is an Innovative Startup Member of the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) and has been featured on that organization’s Solutions Library. The innovative startup is also one of the Tech Nation’s Rising Stars 5.0 City Winners.
Tanja Kufner, Head of Startups & Venture Investments at the Nemetschek Group, adds, “Preoptima’s cloud-based software platform that predetermines, measures, manages, and mitigates carbon emissions throughout the lifetime by using AI is tackling one of the biggest challenges for the construction industry. Their solution can be used at every stage in the building lifecycle, allowing significant and quantitative carbon discussions between all stakeholders in the built environment.”
Nemetschek Group Integrations
With the Nemetschek Group’s global reach through its many AEC/O market leaders, Preoptima is an ideal marriage with its daughter company solutions.
To learn more about Preoptima, go here.
Editor’s Note. In an earlier version of this story, we incorrectly stated that Preoptima’s technology was behind the Nemetschek Group’s daughter company Vectorworks’ own carbon emissions calculator. This has been changed.
