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Infrared City Raises €1M in Pre-Seed Funding to Develop AI-driven Climate Simulation Software for Resilient and Sustainable Cities

Vienna, October 10th, 2023 – Infrared City GmbH, an innovative startup and a spin-off of the Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH specializing in intelligent and resilient design and planning, announced today the successful raise of €1M in pre-seed funding. The investment round was led by xista science ventures, a venture fund focused on scientific advancements, with participation from investors 2bX, Heartfelt, Antler and P3A Ventures. The influx of capital will enable Infrared City GmbH to accelerate the development and deployment of its cutting-edge technology, poised to guide architects and planners to more sustainable, intelligent, and resilient design solutions.

The infrared software uses Artificial Intelligence to calculate the effect of users' design decisions instantly and continuously at every step of the process and provides real-time feedback on important environmental design metrics. The software currently provides feedback on wind speed and comfort, solar radiation, sunlight availability and will cover more critical analyses in the near future. The technology has the potential to provide the necessary insights for an urgently needed rethinking of design and planning towards resilient cities in times of climate change.

"We are thrilled to announce the successful completion of our pre-seed funding round," said Angelos Chronis, Co-Founder and CEO of Infrared City. "This substantial investment will fuel our mission to transform simulation in the architecture engineering and construction industry. Using infrared, designers, planners, developers and policy makers can interact with environmental data and receive feedback on the impact of their design decisions in real-time. Finally, they will have a new tool at hand that allows them unprecedented continuous environmental suitability insights. By providing instant environmental simulation capability to all AEC professionals, we finally remove the specialization barrier to a more resilient built space."

Dr. Bernhard Petermeier from xista science ventures expressed his excitement about the partnership, stating, "We are impressed by the groundbreaking technology and vision of Infrared City GmbH. Their innovative approach to harness Artificial Intelligence to instantly predict simulation results in seconds instead of days is a real game changer for the industry. I’m eager to see the effects Infrared City will have in the future on the very urban environment we experience every day."

About infrared.city

Infrared is a platform for intelligent and resilient design powered by Artificial Intelligence. The company develops digital tools with the goal of making complex environmental simulations accessible and understandable for all stakeholders of the built environment. Using AI-driven simulation prediction models, infrared.city can deliver simulation results at a fraction of the computational and financial cost. Their state-of-the-art machine learning models provide real-time feedback on the performance of design proposals and can guide climate informed decisions at every step of the process. Infrared City currently provides feedback on solar, sunlight and wind performance. More analyses as well as an intelligent insights assistant are coming soon. For more information, please visit www.infrared.city.

About xista science ventures

xista science ventures is a venture fund specializing in visionary science start-ups and academic spin-offs. With a profound grasp of both scientific and investor perspectives, they stand out as an unparalleled partner to support founders in realizing their deep-tech ideas and building scalable enterprises. For further information, please visit www.xista.vc. 

About 2bX

2bX's UrbanTech Fund is dedicated to redesigning cities in the face of pressing issues such as climate change, circularity, density and livability. 2bX brings together a wealth of startup and venture experience complemented by a broad range of perspectives. Infrared is the seventh addition to the fund's portfolio and joins the ranks of visionary companies such as Circus, JUCR and Predium. For further information, please visit https://2bx.vc/.

About Heartfelt

Heartfelt (previously APX) is Europe’s leading earliest-stage VC. Heartfelt supports and partners with the most ambitious pre-seed startups from Europe and European founders abroad, often as their first investor. For further information, please visit https://heartfelt.capital/ 

About Antler 

Antler is the investor backing the world’s most driven founders. We operate across six continents with 29 offices to launch and scale high-potential startups that address meaningful opportunities and challenges. We have helped create and invested in more than 900 startups across a wide range of industries and technologies, supporting from day zero. For more information please visit https://www.antler.co/. 

About P3A Ventures 

More information: https://p3a-holding.com.

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