Aroundtown continues to advance innovation: AtechX launches fourth cohort with eleven international start-ups

PRESS RELEASE

Berlin, 17 July 2026

AtechX, Aroundtown’s innovation and venture platform, is launching its fourth cohort. Over the coming months, eleven selected start-ups will further develop technological solutions for key challenges in the real estate sector. Focus areas include energy efficiency, operational excellence and the transformation of existing buildings, as well as new approaches to construction site automation, land remediation, workflow automation, planning efficiency and real estate management.

The fourth cohort marks the next stage in the development of AtechX. With an expanded partner network and growing international reach, the programme is sharpening its focus – increasingly also on later-stage start-ups and scale-ups with advanced product developments. They can develop their solutions further within the portfolios of Aroundtown and the wider AtechX network, apply them to concrete use cases and assess their scaling potential in real portfolios. Beyond the programme itself, AtechX continues to support particularly promising solutions on their way forward.

“For me, the most exciting part of any start-up has always been the founders. Previous cohorts have already produced particularly strong innovative solutions, which we have successfully implemented across several properties. This fits with the direction in which we have developed AtechX. We are not only supporting companies in their early stages, but also scale-ups with already advanced solutions,” says Angie Mahtaney, Principal in the AtechX team. “The current cohort could hardly be more diverse. They come from different markets, solve different problems and bring very distinct perspectives. Beyond driving innovation, these solutions have the potential to improve how buildings perform, helping create more efficient, resilient and future-ready real estate portfolios. Spend a week working with founders like these and you no longer have to speculate about where the industry is headed. The next 16 weeks are where we get the ball rolling.”

The start-ups of the fourth AtechX cohort

NAVOU – develops solutions for transforming existing buildings into energy-efficient, affordable housing, based on a proprietary modular timber construction system and a fully digitised, data-driven refurbishment process.
SCALE ENERGY – develops full-stack battery storage solutions and its own energy management algorithm for industrial and commercial sites, using the untapped potential of existing grid connections to build a decentralised battery storage network that is set to become one of the largest in Europe.
TEQUS – develops patented, F-gas-free, CO₂-based high-temperature heat pumps for cooling and heating that can replace gas and oil boilers in commercial and industrial buildings.
REMEDY SCIENTIFIC – develops environmental remediation technology using automated, sensor-controlled systems based on chemistry and AI to decontaminate polluted sites, including PFAS, and make them available again for productive real estate use.
MUVAN – offers an AI-based platform for asset and property management that supports leasing, finance and operational processes through automated reporting and tracking dashboards.
ASTRACITE – produces climate-positive anode material for lithium-ion batteries from captured CO₂ and recycled battery graphite, reducing dependency on mined or imported graphite.
PARSEWISE – is an AI infrastructure company building the ontology that structures unstructured real estate documents into a common, traceable data layer – the foundation for workflow automation and portfolio-wide intelligence based on trusted, machine-readable data.
ORIGIN TECH – is a physical AI company building general-purpose robots for the built world, automating repetitive, labour-intensive construction tasks with hardware and engineered AI.
REPERKS – is an AI-led platform for utility cost billing that automates the complex, error-prone work of calculating and reconciling service charges for residential and commercial real estate.
SMART SITE – develops an IoT and agentic AI platform that digitises the “vertical mobility arteries” of construction sites such as lifts, cranes and stairwells. Retrofit edge devices capture the movement of people, materials and tools in real time and feed a cloud platform with KPI dashboards, predictive maintenance and an agentic AI copilot for insights into productivity, safety and security.
EMULATE – develops AI-supported software for planning and permitting that automates building applications, review processes, design reviews and code audits.

With its fourth cohort, AtechX once again focuses on topics that are central to the further development of the real estate sector: making more efficient use of existing buildings, applying new technologies in operations, and connecting sustainability, digitisation and commercial viability. The cohort shows how broadly innovation in real estate needs to be understood today.

About AtechX

AtechX is Aroundtown’s scale-up programme, supporting innovative start-ups in testing and scaling market-ready solutions for the real estate industry under real market conditions. The focused four-month programme is designed for companies developing technologies across the entire real estate lifecycle – from financing and planning to leasing and operations – covering all asset classes, including residential, commercial and hospitality properties.

Start-ups supported by AtechX gain access to the extensive portfolios of its partner network, including Apleona, Aroundtown, LEG Immobilien, Prologis, Round Hill Capital, Schwarz Digits, Stoneweg, Supernova Group and Vonovia, with a combined portfolio volume of more than €400 billion. In addition, they benefit from access to venture capital funds from Fifth Wall, noa, Realyze Ventures, The Bau Ventures and Zacua Ventures, with a total volume of €3 billion. This creates a unique, hands-on environment in which to validate technologies, sharpen market fit and advance concrete implementation projects with the support of experienced real estate experts.

About Aroundtown

Aroundtown is one of Europe’s largest real estate companies, MDAX listed and focused on income generating quality properties with value-add potential in central locations, mainly in Germany, the Netherlands and London. The portfolio comprises mainly office, residential and hotel properties. Aroundtown is a sustainability leader in the European market with strong visibility in ESG indices such as the Dow Jones Best-in-Class Index, and is a member of EPRA, ZIA, DGNB and the UN Global Compact Network Germany. In collaboration with the ZIA, Aroundtown is actively committed to promoting innovation and the future viability of the real estate industry. More information: www.aroundtown.de

Press contact

AtechX Media – [email protected]