Lucend Raises $3.3 Million In Seed Funding Round

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Lucend recently closed a $3.3 million seed funding round, marking a key milestone as the company expands its AI-driven data center optimization platform into the U.S. market. The round was led by Remarkable Ventures Climate (RVC) and included participation from Mitsubishi Electric Innovation Fund, New Climate Ventures, Avesta, Stepchange, and 4impact capital.

Lucend delivers a Transparent AI platform that analyzes existing sensor data (temperature, power, humidity, etc.) from data centers to provide daily actionable insights, predictive anomaly detection, and prescriptive recommendations. Operators retain full control via a human in the loop model, ensuring transparency and minimal risk. The platform integrates with existing systems (BMS, DCIM, SCADA, ServiceNow) and promises rapid value, typically within six weeks, without requiring new sensors or CapEx.

This seed round builds on earlier backing received under the Coolgradient name and coincides with the company’s rebrand and U.S. expansion. No valuation or post money figures were disclosed.

Exploding demand for data centers, driven by AI training and inference, has intensified focus on operational efficiency, uptime, and resource conservation (energy and water). Lucend targets these pain points by unlocking improvements from current infrastructure.

Lucend, previously operating as Coolgradient, announced the close of a $3.3 million seed financing round. The round was led by Remarkable Ventures Climate (RVC), a venture firm focused on climate technologies, and joined by Mitsubishi Electric Innovation Fund (the corporate venturing arm of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation), New Climate Ventures, Avesta, Stepchange, and 4impact capital (an impact investor that backed the company in its earlier incarnation).

The company positions its Transparent AI platform as a software-only solution that connects directly to existing building management systems, data center infrastructure management tools, and other operational data sources. By processing billions of data points daily, the platform identifies inefficiencies, predicts potential failures, and delivers clear, explainable recommendations that operators can accept, modify, or reject. This approach contrasts with black-box AI models by prioritizing verifiability and human oversight, which the founders argue is essential for gaining trust in mission critical environments.

Customer results cited in the announcement include approximately 40% reduction in Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), 25% lower power consumption, 30% reduction in water usage, and 40% improvement in team operational efficiency. One unnamed customer reportedly saved $4.3 million in annual operating costs while achieving a 40% efficiency gain. The platform has been in live use since 2023 across dozens of facilities in markets such as Melbourne, Singapore, Paris, London, Amsterdam, and Chicago, with operators including Digital Realty, Global Switch, and T5.

Co-founders Jasper de Vries and René Gompel emphasized the platform’s risk averse design. De Vries noted, “Lucend’s Transparent AI platform analyzes billions of data points daily and provides prescriptive recommendations that data center operators can review and choose whether or not to implement. Lucend’s human in the loop approach removes risk by ensuring human oversight as operators develop trust in our recommendations that increases efficiency and reliability, and enables new approaches to maintenance and replacement decisions.” Gompel added, “As AI’s demand for data centers grows, data center operators need to prioritize efficiency and uptime while also conserving resources like energy and water. Lucend and our Transparent AI platform open a pathway to consistent, measurable efficiency improvements while increasing uptime, without new CapEx, and without disrupting existing operations, while saving some of our customers millions in annual operating cost.”

From the investor side, Komi Matsubara of Mitsubishi Electric Corporation stated, “Lucend has strong competitiveness in AI driven data center optimization technologies, and we expect its solutions to significantly improve data center operational efficiency and reduce costs. By combining our hardware and infrastructure control technologies with Lucend’s AI platform, we aim to deliver greater value to our customers and strengthen our competitiveness in the data center business.” This corporate participation signals strategic interest in integrating Lucend’s software with hardware ecosystems.

The capital will primarily support scaling U.S. operations, where more than half of the world’s data centers are located, as well as continued product development and customer support. The timing aligns with the company’s recent rebrand (announced earlier in January 2026) and its award win in the Model IT category at the Yotta 2025 Innovate Arena in Las Vegas.

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Prior to the rebrand, Coolgradient had received earlier seed backing, including an investment from 4impact capital in May 2024 (amount undisclosed) and participation from Remarkable Ventures, Golden Egg Check Capital, and ScaleNL. The $3.3 million round therefore represents a continuation and upscaling of support from several existing investors, alongside new strategic additions.

Efficiency Metrics Reported by Lucend Customers

These figures are self reported and based on deployments since 2023; independent third party verification was not detailed in public announcements.

Overall, the round underscores growing investor appetite for software solutions that deliver immediate sustainability and cost benefits in the data center sector without requiring disruptive hardware upgrades. Lucend’s focus on explainability and operator control differentiates it in a market increasingly concerned with both AI driven growth and environmental impact.

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