As the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) accelerates across Europe, the pressure on charging infrastructure grows. Grid volatility and fluctuations in electricity markets are emerging as the most critical bottlenecks for the continent’s transition to electric mobility. Yet, despite this challenge, most commercial charging stations continue to operate as passive, inflexible assets — missing out on the opportunity to support the grid and optimise operational costs.

FLEXECHARGE, a Danish Energy-Tech pioneer, is changing that. The company empowers Charge Point Operators (CPOs) to transform their networks into reliable, grid-integrated, revenue-generating assets, helping them reduce costs by up to 60%. Today, FLEXECHARGE announced a successful €5 million funding round, led by Eneco Ventures and EnBW New Ventures. The round also saw participation from Greencode Ventures and us at Vireo Ventures.

Building the Infrastructure for Smart Charging

The FLEXECHARGE team — Max Brandt, Jan Köster, and Robert Brehm — has developed a comprehensive infrastructure stack designed to help CPOs thrive in the energy transition. Their key solutions include:

• HARMON-E: A vendor-independent load and energy management platform that allows operators to intelligently control energy flows.

• GATEWAY: An on-site controller that ensures local reliability and resilience at charging locations.

• Aggregate: A virtual power plant module that enables participation in flexibility markets, creating new revenue streams.

Already, FLEXECHARGE technology powers over 95 MW of EV charging capacity across Europe, with leading operators such as Electra and Bump relying on their solutions.

Driving the Transition to Resilient, Future-Ready Networks

Max Brandt, CEO of FLEXECHARGE, summarises the company’s mission:

“We want to become the leading provider of load, energy, and grid management — empowering commercial charging operators to reduce costs and build resilient, future-ready networks.”

At Vireo Ventures, we are proud to support FLEXECHARGE in building exactly the kind of solution Europe needs to accelerate the electric mobility transition.

We extend our congratulations to the entire FLEXECHARGE team — Max, Jan, Robert — and thank our co-investors Ashley Klapwijk, Pascal Beckers-Jaleta, Dr. Terhi (TJ) Vapola, Manuel Heckmann, Christian Rangen, Stine Rolstad Brenna, Crispin Leick, Christophe Lephilibert, and many others who made this milestone possible.

For further details, see the official announcement on electrive.net.

The funding will expand Atmen’s platform, helping industrial producers certify product origins and ensure supply chain integrity.

Munich, Germany – May 03, 2025 – Atmen (atmen.co), the company automating sustainability certification for industry, today announced a €5M seed funding round, led by Project A. Existing investors Revent and Vireo Ventures also participated, alongside notable angel investors including former TÜV SUD CEO Axel Stepken, Former CEO and serial Board member in tech environments including ThyssenKrupp, Martina Merz, and serial founder Christian Vollmann, an early investor in Trivago and SumUp. This brings Atmen’s total funding to €6.3M.

In an era of fierce global competition, European industrial companies face a dual challenge: creating a market advantage through sustainability leadership while ensuring global competitiveness.

The critical need for Atmen’s solution becomes clear when examining Europe’s fertiliser supply chain. Ammonia, an essential component for food security across the continent, is a prime example. While the EU imported approximately 25% of its fertilisers from Russia in 2024, valued at over €2.2 billion, the transition to low-carbon ammonia faces a fundamental verification challenge. Since a molecule of ammonia looks identical regardless of production method, this transition requires robust certification systems that can process over 70,000 data points annually to verify product origins and environmental credentials. This is precisely where Atmen comes in.

While traditional approaches rely on periodic sampling and yearly estimates, Atmen’s platform ingests granular, real-time operational data directly from industrial processes. This integration into industrial workflows streamlines compliance for energy-intensive products like hydrogen and renewable fuels, enabling companies to prove product composition and material origins with unprecedented certainty. By digitising certification processes, Atmen enhances traceability while reducing complexity, a crucial advantage for European industry navigating the energy transition.

Industry expertise drives practical solutions

Atmen was founded in January 2023 by Flore de Durfort, Quentin Cangelosi, and Erika Degoute, who met working at the renowned energy company E.ON. They identified a critical problem: despite its growing importance for market access, product certification still relied on outdated, manual processes – error-prone paperwork and scattered spreadsheets that couldn’t handle today’s complex supply chains and data requirements.

The team combines energy market expertise with robust technical capabilities. Atmen’s flagship product, ‚Automate,‘ is already in use across industrial sites in 9 countries and working with five leading certification bodies, including TÜV NORD.

Building European competitiveness in a changing world

As Europe navigates complex trade tensions with the US, energy dependency on Russia, and manufacturing competition from China, traditional certification methods are failing due to their paper-based, labour-intensive processes. Cross-border transactions now require detailed certification of product origins and sustainability credentials, overwhelming systems designed for simpler supply networks. Atmen connects everyone involved, from producers and traders to auditors and certification labels, in a single system. This replaces scattered spreadsheets and siloed audits with continuous data monitoring and tracking tools that validate each product’s specifications and origins. Atmen’s approach also aligns with the EU Clean Industrial Deal, which outlines concrete actions to turn decarbonisation into a driver of growth for European industries.

With this €5 million funding, Atmen plans to expand beyond hydrogen, renewable and low-carbon fuels to certify a wider range of energy-intensive goods, including steel, chemicals, and fertilisers – sectors where proving product characteristics is essential for market access and decarbonisation. The team will also strengthen connections with regulators and certification schemes while launching tools that help companies track environmental impact and meet evolving regulations, which are increasing scrutiny on product sustainability claims.

Strengthening industry through transparency

As supply chains face growing pressure from geopolitical shifts and energy transitions, reliable product certification becomes essential for European businesses. Atmen’s platform builds trust in product claims by raising the standard from periodic sampling to comprehensive data analysis – all while simplifying the process for manufacturers.

The platform helps companies navigate certification requirements, optimising their supply chains for both compliance and commercial goals. Atmen achieves this through advanced modelling tools that clarify decision-making and provide supply chain visibility.

Atmen is already working with industry leaders, including Lhyfe, Schneider Electric, and Energy & Regulation Partners. The team, currently at 11 employees, will expand to support the company’s ambitious growth trajectory.

„European industries need reliable ways to verify products across borders and supply chains,“ says Flore de Durfort, CEO and co-founder of Atmen. „We’re simplifying and scaling product certification, turning a traditional bottleneck into a competitive advantage. Our platform acts as a data infrastructure layer on top of industrial supply chains, processing complete operational datasets while reducing complexity. With Europe’s limited access to fossil fuels, the transition to renewable energy requires stronger systems to verify clean energy products – that’s precisely what we’re building.”

„In a world where industrial competitiveness depends on traceable, low-carbon supply chains, Atmen is building the digital backbone that turns complex production inputs into compliant, market- and export-ready products,“ says Mila Cramer, Principal at Project A.