Furbnow, a proptech startup focused on home energy efficiency, has secured a £2.5 million seed round led by the West Midlands Co-Investment Fund at Future Planet Capital Regional, alongside Nesta, Wrightwood Investments, Danny Luhde-Thompson, SFC Capital (follow-on) and several angel investors. The funding will be used to scale the team, enhance the technology platform, and expand service offerings across the United Kingdom.
Millions of homeowners across the United Kingdom want warmer, cheaper-to-run homes, but most give up before they start, faced with conflicting advice, opaque quotes and no single trusted expert to guide the process. The Furbnow platform streamlines that process through an end-to-end service, beginning with an automated, personalised home energy assessment and leading to the creation of a "home energy plan" that breaks improvements down over time. Projects are then managed from planning through to installation by third-party contractors, ensuring transparency and quality for the client at every step.
At the core of the service sits the "Home Digital Twin", which creates a living model of each property and provides accurate energy modelling by integrating real-time sensor data. Accuracy in energy prediction exceeds 90%, while assessment costs fall by 95% and processing times drop from days to under an hour.
The UK Government estimates that 29 million homes in the United Kingdom will need retrofitting with low-carbon heating systems and energy-saving improvements by 2050 to meet current net-zero targets. According to the Climate Change Committee, an additional investment of £162 billion will have to be allocated for installing low-carbon heating in existing homes between 2020 and 2050. The National Audit Office estimates that 18% of the greenhouse gas emissions of the United Kingdom come from heating homes, making housing the second-highest emitting sector after transport.
We are thrilled to partner with the West Midlands Co-Investment Fund and our co-investors as we enter this exciting new phase of growth. I started Furbnow out of frustration with my own experience of improving the energy efficiency of my own home and delivering large-scale retrofit programmes - I knew we needed something better to give people what they need to invest in their homes' energy performance. This investment will enable us to accelerate product development, and scale our relationships with suppliers. Our mission is to make sustainable homes accessible to everyone, and this funding brings us one step closer to making a significant environmental and economic impact.
Furbnow's platform is a game-changer for the residential retrofit market. By automating assessments and streamlining project management, Furbnow is making home decarbonisation achievable at scale. This investment aligns perfectly with Future Planet Capital's mission to back companies with both high-growth potential and a strong commitment to addressing global challenges.
Green industries are one of the fastest-growing parts of our economy, and I want the West Midlands to stay ahead of the game. That's why it's essential we back innovative businesses like Furbnow which have the ideas and technical know-how to improve people's lives and create skilled jobs. We're already investing millions in bringing homes, businesses, libraries, schools, and leisure centres up to modern energy standards, tackling fuel poverty and protecting the vital public services people rely on every day. Furbnow's technology is made in Birmingham, but it has the potential to help build a more sustainable, prosperous future for people and businesses far beyond our region.
The West Midlands Co-Investment Fund was launched to accelerate and support the success of innovative SMEs driving the region's future economy. Furbnow is a prime example of this focus on scalable, high-impact SMEs capable of delivering strong investment returns, boosting regional economic growth, tackling global environmental challenges and adding real value to people across the West Midlands and the UK.
