Curiosity, a Dutch venture capital fund focused on seed-stage investments in AI startups of Northern Europe, announces its investment in Freesi. In collaboration with Helen Ventures, €1.7 million was made available to support further development and international expansion of this Finnish technology company offering AI-based software for analysing indoor air quality and optimising the indoor climate in buildings.
Freesi was founded in 2017 by Samu Niska and Antti-Jaakko Alanko, and has become one of the leading solution providers within the field of indoor air quality analysis and indoor climate optimisation in Finland. Freesi’s software, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), offers property owners and managers an innovative solution to monitor, analyse and improve the indoor climate of buildings, with automated alerts and recommendations. The solution increases buildings' cost-effectiveness, improves user satisfaction, ensures that energy-saving measures are conducted without compromising the indoor climate conditions, and enables compliance with new regulations regarding air quality for properties such as schools and hospitals. In short, it supports achieving ESG targets, while increasing the building's return on investment. Freesi provides a scalable solution that can easily be deployed in the building portfolio at any stage of a building’s life cycle.
Over the past years, Freesi has achieved remarkable growth in the domestic markets, becoming a market leader in the industry. The solution is currently employed in commercial properties, public sector, and construction segments, in over 2,000,000 m2 of property surface. Recently, Freesi won a tender to provide its solution to a large international real estate investor, managing more than 1,000 buildings worldwide.
The private equity raised enables Freesi to invest in international business growth. In the next couple of months, the team will be expanded, as will the functionalities of the software regarding the data-driven recommendations for optimisation of indoor climates. Additionally, investments will be made in international marketing and sales. Beyond funding, Helen Ventures and Curiosity will support the technology startup in strategy development, operational scaling, recruiting, and finance. In the coming years, Freesi is expected to become a key software supplier within the international real estate market.
"We are thrilled to have such an international interest in our company. I'm confident that our team combined with the expertise and networks from our investor syndicate Helen and Curiosity ensures our international growth and enables Freesi to become the number one solution for property portfolio leaders to fulfil their indoor climate-related ESG targets. The funding will be used to accelerate our product development and our international expansion." - Samu Niska, CEO and co-Founder of Freesi.
“Boosted by the Covid pandemic, there’s an increased attention for the air quality within buildings and creating healthy work environments. This development goes hand in hand with the global aim to optimise the energy consumption of buildings to reduce CO2 emissions. Based on their extended expertise in this field, Freesi's team has developed a data-driven solution that enables property owners to improve the indoor climate in their buildings while boosting efficiency at the same time. Big international customers are discovering the value of Freesi’s software as we speak, which offers enormous growth potential.” – Herman Kienhuis, managing partner of Curiosity.
About Freesi
Freesi is a Finland-based property technology company founded in 2017. The company specialises in indoor climate development in large building portfolios, providing the tools to monitor, analyse, and develop buildings' indoor conditions. Their innovative AI-powered solution is already deployed in over 2,000,000 m2 of property surface, helping property owners and managers to achieve their ESG objectives while increasing the building's return on investment. www.freesi.io, info@freesi.io, press contact: emma.rantanen@freesi.io
About Curiosity
Curiosity is an Amsterdam-based venture capital fund focused on early-stage investments in talented, diverse teams based in the Benelux, Nordics, and Baltics, building the next generation of AI-driven software companies to serve the world, not eat it. Curiosity is led by two experienced operator-investors: Herman Kienhuis and Maurice Beckand Verwee, supported by a community of expert advisors and portfolio company founders who all become co-owners of the fund.
www.curiosityvc.com, hello@curiosityvc.com, press contact: britt@mcpr.nl
