Verdane invests €50m in Konvekta to slash emissions from buildings

Energy recovery company Konvekta has been owned by the Pfenninger family since its founding in 1949 – but not anymore. The firm has been acquired in an equity deal that puts it under the control of Verdane, one of Europe’s largest growth investors.

The Pfenningers will still retain a minority stake in the company. Current board member Hanspeter Pfenninger, son of Konvekta’s founder Walter Pfenninger, will remain on the board, a spokesperson from Verdane tells Impact Loop. The company's valuation was not disclosed.

Konvekta’s CEO Joachim Lennarz believes the buy-out marks the start of a "new phase of growth" that will help the company push into new markets worldwide. 

How the tech works

Konvekta’s system reuses energy that would otherwise be lost through a building’s ventilation. Instead of letting valuable warm air escape during winter or cold air escape during the summer, the closed-loop setup recirculates it through the building.

The process relies on custom-built heat exchangers and control software that adjusts in real time. Before installation, Konvekta uses a “digital twin” — a detailed virtual model of the building — to simulate how the system might perform. This enables the company to identify the best configuration for each building.

Konvekta claims its system can cut a building’s heating and cooling needs, and the associated CO2 emissions, by more than 90%.

Slashing carbon emissions from buildings

Heating and cooling buildings alone contribute over a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, so Konvekta is positioned to make a significant impact – and that potential hasn’t gone unnoticed. The company has already installed its systems in buildings belonging to the likes of Harvard University, Frankfurt Airport, BMW, Yale University, Deutsche Bank, UBS, and MIT.

Across 1,000 projects worldwide, Konvekta says its system saves 530,000 tonnes of CO2 each year – roughly equal to the amount emitted when burning 1.2 million barrels of oil.

The potential emissions savings from Konvekta’s technology align closely with Verdane’s broader investment strategy. In October, the firm launched a €700m second fund – Idun II – dedicated to climate tech companies.

"This is one of the, if not the, largest decarbonisation pure-play growth funds in Europe," Verdane’s managing partner Bjarne Lie told Reuters at the time.