Heating and cooling systems account for nearly 50% of global final energy consumption. These systems are increasingly interconnected with multiple energy carriers — heating, cooling, electricity, and CO₂. Netherlands-based Gradyent aims to reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 10%, lower operational costs, and save up to 20% of capital expenditures.
Today, the company has secured €28 million in an oversubscribed growth funding round led by Blue Earth Capital, a global impact investment firm. SEB Greentech Venture Capital joined alongside continued support from Capricorn Partners, Eneco Ventures, Helen Ventures, and Energiiq. This brings Gradyent’s total funding to over €39 million since its founding in 2019.
The funds will expand Gradyent’s Digital Twin Platform, grow its team, and accelerate global growth to optimise heating and cooling grids worldwide.
How Gradyent transforms district heating through AI and Digital Twin technology
Founded in 2019 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, by Hervé Huisman (ex-ASMK and McKinsey), Robert Vrancken, and Freek Smelt, Gradyent enhances heating systems through AI-driven Digital Twin technology, making district heating more efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective.
Traditional software can no longer manage increasingly complex district and industrial heating grids. This calls for digital, data-driven solutions to improve efficiency, enable more intelligent decision-making, and ensure reliable energy delivery.
Gradyent was created to address inefficiencies in heating systems, which account for over 50% of global energy consumption. The founders aim to transform heating networks using AI and Digital Twin technology to enhance operations, minimise heat loss, reduce CO₂ emissions, and accelerate the transition to sustainable energy systems.
Gradyent’s real-time Digital Twin Platform creates a digital replica of the entire heating and cooling grid, combining geographical, weather, and sensor data with physics-based models and AI. The platform enables energy providers to optimise their systems, enhance operational control, and simulate future scenarios.
“As heating and cooling grids become more integrated with other energy carriers, efficiently managing multiple energy sources is crucial. Gradyent’s Digital Twin Platform optimises, decarbonises and transforms even the most complex sector-coupled energy systems. By enabling companies to coordinate generation and distribution across carriers while making cost-optimal decisions, we drive greater flexibility — helping businesses navigate this transformation, reduce emissions, and enhance long-term efficiency,” said Hervé Huisman, CEO & Co-founder of Gradyent.
The company partners with leading energy companies in over 35 European cities, including Veolia, Shell, Helen, and others. Energy providers using Gradyent’s technology can optimise performance, reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 10%, lower operational costs, and save up to 20% of capital expenditures.
Case studies: reducing heat losses and CO2 emissions in real-time
Helen, one of the largest energy companies in Europe, is utilising Gradyent’s Digital Twin technology to enhance demand management, improve efficiency, and minimise CO₂ emissions and heat losses in real time. The insights gained from the Digital Twin’s offline analysis led to the closure of one of Helen’s coal plants, reducing CO₂ emissions from Helsinki’s heat production by as much as 40%.
Gradyent is also collaborating with Veolia, a major district heating operator in Poland, to create Digital Twins that streamline source and network operations in Łódź and Poznań. This solution combines heat demand, weather predictions, and electricity pricing, allowing dispatchers to effectively manage daily operations and facilitating Veolia’s shift toward 4G district heating.
In the Netherlands, Uniper’s partnership with Gradyent has resulted in real-time optimisation of its district heating system, focusing on reducing heat losses through lowered operating temperatures while maintaining a reliable supply.
Additionally, Gradyent is spearheading changes in industrial heating grids through a partnership with Shell, piloting a Digital Twin for its steam grid at the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park in Rotterdam. This initiative supports Shell’s goal to achieve net zero for its scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2050.
Future market growth and Gradyent’s expansion plans
By 2030, demand for flexible assets like e-boilers and heat pumps is expected to grow tenfold globally as energy systems become more interconnected. Gradyent is well-positioned to capitalise on this trend by expanding beyond Europe into new markets while continuing to innovate within industrial heating applications.
“Gradyent has quickly established itself as a leader in optimising and transforming heating grids with its Digital Twin Platform, which helps reduce emissions and operational costs. These are important contributions to help drive the global energy transition toward flexible, integrated energy systems. This aligns perfectly with Blue Earth Capital’s commitment to supporting impactful, innovative solutions that can accelerate decarbonisation,” said Claude Kamga, Director, Private Equity at Blue Earth Capital.
“Heating and cooling grids are decarbonising at record speed. Energy companies are replacing CO2-emitting heating units with diverse electrified assets, heat sources, and storage solutions, making optimisation more complex than ever before. Gradyent’s Digital Twin Platform is perfectly timed and totally unique to take advantage of volatile electricity prices to deliver affordable low-carbon heating to their customers.” said Mikko Huumo, Investment Manager at SEB Greentech Venture Capital.
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