A Frankfurt-based startup aiming to modernise how cities manage their street lighting has secured €1 million in pre-seed funding. ENVIOTECH, which was founded by former bankers Adrian Rhaese and Linh Pham, plans to use the capital to launch an intelligent retrofit system for municipal lighting infrastructure.
Funding and early backers
The round was led by Jürgen Fitschen, the former co-CEO of Deutsche Bank, whose involvement signals strong confidence in the venture. Additional support came from Joachim Drees, ex-CEO of MAN; Alexander Eyhorn, founder of Bidirex; and Danilo Jovicic-Albrecht, co-founder of Vialytics. According to PitchBook, ENVIOTECH is already at the “Generating Revenue” stage, with the deal classified as an early-stage VC investment. The startup has also been accepted into the EWOR Fellowship, a competitive programme for early-stage founders.
How the intelligent retrofit system works
The technology is designed to address a problem that Rhaese witnessed first-hand: a close friend was hospitalised after a cycling accident on a road where streetlights had been switched off to save money. That incident, the company says, highlighted the safety risks created when councils turn off or dim lights under financial pressure. Across Europe, street lighting accounts for roughly 40% of municipal electricity bills, and the recent energy crisis has forced many local authorities to compromise on public safety.
ENVIOTECH’s solution is a retrofit kit that can be installed on existing streetlights without replacing the entire fixture. The company claims the installation takes under 15 minutes and is compatible with the Zhaga Book 18 standard, which governs the interface between luminaires and control gear. Once fitted, the system uses secure, high-speed mesh networking to connect lights without requiring dedicated infrastructure such as new cables or control cabinets. That means cities can upgrade their lighting stock quickly and at a fraction of the cost of a full replacement programme.
The kit gives cities remote control over each lamp. Operators can dim lights according to time of day, traffic flow, or other conditions, and monitor energy use in real time through the EnvioTerminal platform. The platform provides customisable dashboards and sets off alarms for maintenance issues or performance drops. ENVIOTECH says this approach can cut energy consumption by up to 80%, while also lowering operational costs and reducing carbon emissions. Moreover, the system is designed to be extensible: it can later accommodate additional sensors for air quality, traffic counting, or other Internet of Things applications, making it a building block for broader smart city deployments.
The market for such technology is large. Street lighting represents between 30% and 50% of a European city’s total electricity consumption, and smart lighting solutions can deliver savings of 35% to 70% overall. The global smart lighting market is projected to exceed €90 billion by 2030, according to industry estimates. ENVIOTECH faces competition from established players such as Signify and Telensa, as well as other European startups including Flashnet (with its inteliLIGHT system) and Landis+Gyr.
Investor profile and broader context
Jürgen Fitschen’s involvement brings not just capital but also strategic weight. As co-CEO of Deutsche Bank from 2012 to 2016, he oversaw one of Europe’s largest financial institutions, and his board roles have included Ceconomy AG and Vonovia SE. He has also moved into sustainable finance, joining the board of Arabesque S-Ray, an ESG data firm. Joachim Drees, the former CEO of MAN, adds industrial and operational expertise. The investor syndicate also includes Alexander Eyhorn and Danilo Jovicic-Albrecht, the latter having co-founded Vialytics, a company that uses AI to assess road conditions — a further sign of interest in urban infrastructure technology.
ENVIOTECH has also been described as operating within Frankfurt’s wider smart city ambitions. The city launched an Urban Data Platform in October 2022 that merges municipal and meteorological data for real-time city information, and it runs initiatives such as “Smart Mobility Frankfurt” and “Smart City Frankfurt”. Frankfurt aims to be carbon-neutral by 2035 and powered entirely by renewable energy by 2050. At the European level, programmes such as Horizon Europe (with €220 million allocated for climate-neutral and smart cities in 2026–2027), the European Urban Initiative (€60 million), and cascade funding through EU projects offer further opportunities for startups like ENVIOTECH and for municipalities looking to adopt their technology.
