Sitegeist, a Munich-based construction robotics startup, has raised €4 million in pre-seed funding to deploy automated, AI-powered robots on real-world construction sites. The round will enable the company to expand its team and accelerate the rollout of its modular robotic systems, which help concrete renovation firms tackle severe capacity shortages.
The funding was led by b2venture and OpenOcean, with participation from UnternehmerTUM Funding for Innovators. The capital will support hiring, technology development, and broader deployment across Europe's infrastructure renovation sector.
Across Europe, aging bridges, tunnels, parking structures, and public buildings urgently need renovation. In Germany alone, the infrastructure repair backlog totals hundreds of billions of euros, according to KfW's 2025 estimates. Similar challenges exist across North America and beyond.
A severe labor shortage is making the problem worse. Physically demanding tasks like concrete renovation are costly, hard to staff, and difficult to scale. Unlike conventional automation approaches that rely on pre-existing 3D models or standardized site conditions, Sitegeist's robots operate directly on existing structures. Using advanced perception, AI-based decision support, and adaptive control, they handle complex geometries and varying material conditions without prior digitization.
"Infrastructure renovation is hitting a critical bottleneck, especially in concrete repair," said Dr. Lena-Marie Pätzmann, co-founder and CEO of Sitegeist. "Today, deteriorated concrete is still removed using manually intensive processes that are hard to scale. We're tackling this challenge with the first ever specialized automated and modular robots that can perform concrete renovation directly on existing structures. We're thrilled to have won such renowned investors who share our mission. This backing enables us to move faster in bringing automated renovation to critical infrastructure worldwide."
Concrete renovation is a particularly complex and capacity-constrained segment of infrastructure maintenance. To repair damaged structures, deteriorated concrete must be selectively removed using high-pressure water or abrasive blasting. This process requires precision, experience, and constant supervision to avoid damaging the steel reinforcement underneath.
Today, this work is largely manual and highly site-specific. Driven by shortages of qualified labor, low efficiency, and increasing safety requirements, construction companies are unable to meet strong demand. Many firms are fully booked months or even years in advance, leading to significant project backlogs.
Sitegeist addresses these challenges with modular, automated robots purpose-built for unstructured construction environments. This approach significantly increases throughput and quality while reducing rework.
Sitegeist works directly with concrete renovation construction companies on site, using a modular platform designed to expand across the renovation value chain over time. Going forward, the company aims to collaborate with additional test sites, co-development partners, and talent to further validate and refine its robots.
The new funding will support these partnerships and help Sitegeist scale its technology beyond concrete removal into adjacent renovation tasks.
Sitegeist is a spin-out from Technical University Munich (TUM), originating from a renowned robotics research institute led by Prof. Matthias Althoff. The company was founded by Dr. Lena-Marie Pätzmann from the University of St. Gallen, along with Claus Carste, Julian Hoffmann, and Nicola Kolb, who met at TUM during their studies and through the Munich startup ecosystem.
The founding team combines deep robotics expertise with a pragmatic understanding of how renovation actually works on site. Three of the founders bring technical expertise in robotics and artificial intelligence, complemented by a business-focused founder with a strong commercialization background.
Sitegeist emerged from the same robotics research environment as RobCo and is academically rooted in the work of Prof. Matthias Althoff. By combining robotics and AI with German engineering, Sitegeist aims to address one of the construction industry's most pressing challenges: scaling infrastructure renovation despite severe labor shortages.
"The way concrete is removed today by workers is devastating and extremely arduous. This is the perfect case for augmenting humans with robots," said Florian Schweitzer, partner at b2venture. "What sets Sitegeist apart is its team, which will literally go through walls to bring autonomy into highly unstructured, real-world construction environments. The team combines deep robotics expertise with a pragmatic understanding of how renovation actually works on site, which gives them the potential to define this category."
"The most exciting AI-powered robots today don't have fingers and thumbs," said Sam Hields, partner at OpenOcean. "Sitegeist's non-humanoid robots are purpose-built to solve real-world problems, and their ability to operate in harsh environments with superhuman strength and autonomy is genuinely transformative. This is exactly the kind of task we want AI to automate: a manual, expensive process with low talent availability. With an aging population and a skills shortage in physical industries like construction, robotics will help us refit our infrastructure for the future, and TUM and Munich have proven this is one of the best places to build teams to do it."
b2venture is one of the most experienced venture capital firms in Europe, backing exceptional founders building transformative technologies across the continent. The firm is pioneering an approach that systematically combines direct and fund investments, supported by a community of more than 350 angel investors. The portfolio includes DeepL, 1KOMMA5°, Raisin, SumUp, and Neura Robotics, among others.
OpenOcean is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in frontier technologies across Europe, with offices in London and Helsinki. The firm focuses on disruptive, data-driven B2B software and makes strategic investments of up to €6 million, typically at seed or Series A. OpenOcean's portfolio includes Binalyze, Booksy, IQM, MindsDB, Supermetrics, and Truecaller.
UnternehmerTUM Funding for Innovators is the pre-seed fund of UnternehmerTUM, Europe's foremost center for innovation and business creation. It invests early in deep tech founders building category-defining companies, specializing in hard tech and the code that powers it.
