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In March 2025, ENERGATE teams from both COMMUTY and EnerSave Capital conducted extensive market outreach at MIPIM, Europe’s largest annual real-estate event. Across both missions, ENERGATE engaged with more than 80 stakeholders, including developers, investors, financiers, asset managers, advisory firms, engineering companies, architects, municipal delegations, and green building councils.

These engagements provided concrete insights into market expectations, needs, and adoption barriers for digital and financial solutions supporting energy-efficiency retrofits.

Key Themes from Developer, Investor, and Asset Manager Discussions

Across meetings with multiple stakeholders, several patterns emerged:

  • Interest is conditional on track record. Developers and asset managers emphasised that platform adoption hinges on demonstrated reliability, closed transactions, and proven ability to support portfolio-scale renovation.
  • Greenfield developers expressed limited short-term interest, while brownfield-focused groups showed stronger alignment with ENERGATE.
  • Portfolio-level users, particularly large asset managers, indicated they would not adopt the platform on a project-by-project basis but may consider it for large-scale standardization once early case studies mature.
  • Demand is strong for funded, off-balance-sheet solutions, with “as-a-service” models highlighted as particularly attractive across markets.
Engineering, Architecture, and Technical Advisory: Demand for Advanced Tools

Engineering and architecture firms expressed interest in ENERGATE’s technical capabilities, particularly:

  • AI-supported retrofit recommendations
  • Digital twin integration
  • Standardised measure libraries
  • Carbon intensity and material reuse considerations

These groups stressed the importance of digital tools that reduce time, labour, and cost in project identification and pre-feasibility stages.

Green Building Councils and Associations: Strong Potential for Multiplier Effect

Organisations such as DGNB, Certivea, BBCA/LCBI, and green building councils in multiple countries highlighted ENERGATE’s potential to:

  • serve as a bridge between certification frameworks and financed EE upgrades;
  • support their members with practical, market-ready tools;
  • create synergies for promoting energy-efficiency investment.

However, language limitations, limited country-specific onboarding of early users, and insufficient local project visibility were raised as barriers to deeper collaboration.

Financial Sector and Sustainability Institutions: Momentum Toward Innovative Financing Models

Financial institutions showed interest in ENERGATE’s potential to standardise and securitise financing mechanisms.

Major themes included:

  • strong demand for funded, bankable, and as-a-service solutions;
  • clear interest in energy-efficiency finance innovation (e.g., securitised EPCs, leasing, white-certificate-supported investments);
  • the need for local deal flow: financiers tend to invest in their own markets, so platform scaling must reflect regional presence;
  • concerns about continuity beyond EU grant funding as a prerequisite for onboarding major portfolios.
Market Feedback from Stakeholders: Cross-Cutting Insights

Across all engagement activities, national meetings, bank consultations, and MIPIM outreach, stakeholders consistently highlighted four priority conditions for broad platform adoption:

Funded, Bankable Solutions

Stakeholders repeatedly emphasised that funded offerings are essential. “As-a-service” models emerged as the most universally compelling option, as they enable deep retrofits without upfront capex.

Demonstrable Track Record

Developers, asset managers, banks, and councils all expect ENERGATE to demonstrate real, completed transactions before adopting the platform at scale.

Regional Relevance and Local Market Presence

Local case studies, local language interfaces, and country-specific financiers are needed to increase trust and relevance.

Visibility, Continuity, and Commercialisation

Stakeholders require reassurance that ENERGATE will continue beyond the initial project funding period, supported by a clear commercial strategy and ongoing platform maintenance.

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