3D-Mapping Startup: High-Tech Gründerfonds and BitStone Capital invest in dotscene GmbH

With the successfully concluded financing round, the Freiburg-based company is further expanding its capacities and thus responding to the great demand for its solutions for portfolio digitisation in the real estate industry.

With its technology for mobile 3D laser scanning, dotscene GmbH captures real estate from inside and outside, from the ground and from the air. It thus provides complete and accurate planning bases for a fraction of the resources previously required. These are used, for example, by the housing industry as a digital building twin or for applications in the industrial sector 4.0.

“Only the recording of real estate, including the stairwells, over several floors and the combination of these data records with the recorded outer shells of the buildings can produce truly complete 3D models,” says Michael Ruhnke (leading software developer, dotscene GmbH). “We were aware from the outset that our technology in practice only generates real added value for our customers when we get a solution to this problem”.

The core competence of the start-up company is the development of hardware and software for mobile laser data acquisition. The Freiburg-based PropTech company combines 3D laser sensors from the field of autonomous driving and SLAM algorithms (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping) of mobile robotics to efficiently convert our environment into 3D models. The laser scanning system dotcube 600k developed by the Freiburg-based company works completely independent of external reference variables such as GPS and can therefore be used on drones, on foot and on vehicles. Based on this technology, the company creates CAD models, true-to-scale floor plans and façade projections for its customers.

“With the fresh capital we will now above all accelerate the further developments, expand our infrastructure and increase our presence on the market”, says Nicolas Trusch (Managing Director, dotscene GmbH) and adds: “With the know-how of the High-Tech Gründerfonds and the industry knowledge of BitStone Capital we have a strong investor constellation on board with which we are excellently positioned for the future”.

Lucille Bonnet, Senior Investment Manager of High-Tech Gründerfonds: “It has never been so easy to completely digitize huge objects and their environment. dotscene has developed a robust solution with strong unique selling propositions and is already using it successfully in the market. Now we’re working with the team to unleash the great potential for the real estate industry”. Manfred Heid, Partner at BitStone Capital adds: “3D mapping will be the basis for many of the future technologies that are emerging and we look forward to discovering these applications with the team. 

Since the foundation of dotscene GmbH in October 2016, the company has been financed by sales in its core business and currently employs 11 people. The founding team, consisting of Dr. Michael Ruhnke, Nicolas Trusch, Andreas Wachaja, Maryan Wieland and Prof. Dr. Burgard, who accompanies the company as Scientific Advisor, has transformed approaches from robotics into a product for the real estate industry, thus opening up completely new opportunities for its customers.