Our investment in Reonic: Empowering Renewable Energy Installers Across Europe

The global shift towards renewable energy sources marks a critical step in our journey toward a more sustainable future. As the environmental and economic repercussions of fossil fuel dependency become increasingly apparent, embracing clean, renewable alternatives like solar and wind energy is essential. Accelerated by geopolitical events in Europe, there is strong consensus that the energy transition is one of the big societal projects of our time. The importance of this undertaking is further underpinned by ambitious goals and new policies set by local, European and international institutions. In Germany alone, the government wants to triple solar capacity from the 70 gigawatts installed over the past decade to 200 gigawatts by 2030. At the EU level, the EU Solar Energy Strategy mandates PV systems on all new commercial and residential buildings from 2030. From a consumer perspective, falling hardware prices for solar panels, heat pumps and energy storage systems have made the adoption of such solutions more attractive and attainable than ever. Due to these tailwinds, we believe that Europe is poised for an even bigger shift towards renewables than what we have already seen over the past 15 years. Imagine a world of greater energy abundance and self-sufficiency, where manufacturing companies can generate a significant amount of energy themselves and where large clusters of homes feed clean energy back into the grid at scale.

Europe boasts over 200.000 SMEs specialising in renewable energy technology installation for commercial and residential buildings. These installers, typically small, owner-led businesses employing highly skilled blue-collar workers, are vital to the energy transition’s success. However, there is no purpose-built software today that helps installers run their business digitally. Hence, installers still have to rely on pen and paper or generic software that fails to address their unique workflows and needs. This leaves installers struggling with time-consuming planning, inefficient lead management and complex system configurations amongst other challenges.

Enter Reonic, an operating system that empowers SME installers to run their business more efficiently digitally, by providing an end-to-end software suite that covers lead management, CRM, project design, procurement and billing. Reonic was founded by Tristan Menzinger, Lars-Manuel Schneider, and Udo Sill who met whilst studying industrial engineering in Augsburg, Germany. What initially started as a side project, soon turned into a proper business when the trio realised how strong the demand from installers was for their product.  

Since its founding in 2021, Reonic has attracted over 300 customers, including major German utility companies. Customers attest that Reonic offers the most complete and easiest to use solution in the market, making them the solution of choice for installers who are looking to grow their business and optimise processes. Tristan, Manuel and Udo have incredibly complementary skill sets and share a massive ambition and passion to make a lasting contribution to the world’s transition towards renewables. 

We are grateful for the opportunity to lead Reonic’s Series A and look forward to partnering with the team, as well as existing investors Point Nine and Puzzle Ventures. At Northzone, we love backing ambitious founders building software products in spaces with low digital adoption that are seeing unique macro tailwinds – as we have done with our investments in Personio, Wagestream, Govdash and many others. While we are hugely impressed by what Reonic has accomplished in such a short amount of time, the team says they are still just getting started. 

In the near term, Reonic plans to launch its product across Europe, enter the commercial PV market and cover heat pumps and energy storage systems. We are beyond excited to be working with the team as they embark on their journey to build the market-leading software platform on which installers can run their business. 

To learn more about Reonic, visit Reonic.com.