Cloover launches in Austria via partnership with Heizma – Scoop
It’s certainly already one of the largest financings a European startup is receiving this year: Cloover from Berlin, specializing in financing for PV systems, heat pumps and more, has just announced that it has received approximately 1.2 billion euros in financing commitments (equity plus debt). Unlike Enpal or 1Komma5°, however, Cloover does not target end consumers directly, but instead goes B2B2C via installers as partners.
Meaning: Installation businesses receive a web platform that enables CRM, project planning, procurement, financing, subsidies, and service for end customers. As part of the financing round and steep growth plans for 2026, expansion into France, Italy, Great Britain, and Austria is also on the agenda. In Austria, as Trending Topics has learned, the company has now landed a few weeks ago. The partner here: the Vienna-based startup Heizma.
“Customers who wouldn’t have gotten a loan from the bank”
“Heizma is one of the best heat pump installers in Austria and our first customer in the Austrian market. They use the Cloover platform and can now offer an installation that costs 30,000 to 40,000 euros for 100 to 200 euros per month,” says Cloover CEO Jodok Betschart in conversation with Trending Topics.
The Vienna-based startup, which has just taken over customers from the insolvency assets of Dutch company Soly after insolvency in Austria, uses Cloover’s end-to-end software as follows: “When Heizma is on-site with the customer, they use our platform, ask a few questions, and our AI-based underwriting model provides a decision in real time: how we can finance the person, for how long, and on what terms. This gives Heizma the opportunity to close customers who might otherwise have been left behind. Already in December we were able to make many deals with customers who wouldn’t have gotten a loan from the bank,” Betschart describes the use case.
“We’re excited to work with Cloover. Not least, we really appreciate the team around Jodok Betschart and share a similar mindset here. In the end, the decision for a partnership was therefore very logical for both sides, and with AngelInvest we also have a shared investor on board, which is of course very cool,” says Alexander Valtingojer, co-founder of Heizma, to Trending Topics. “Our goal is to implement a financing volume of 10 million euros together in the first 12 months, and I believe we’re already well on our way!”
“We have very low default rates”
Cloover finances the heat pump, PV system, and/or battery storage for a household upfront—purchases that can quickly reach a price of 30,000 to 40,000 euros. Through installment payments, similar to car leasing, the customer pays off this large amount over a term of 25 years—for example, for about 100 to 150 euros per month.
The payments go directly to Cloover and not to the bank, which provides the debt facility of approximately one billion euros. According to Betschart, this has an advantage: “A bank looks at the past and credit rating possibilities. We, on the other hand, also look at future energy gains and savings. We know the assets, the installers, have access to the performance of installed systems, and can accurately assess how much a household will save,” he explains. “We have the ability to factor in future energy savings in addition to normal credit information. This allows us to offer an installment purchase model to customers who would not be financed by a regular bank – such as self-employed people or retirees who still own a house. Our acceptance rate is much higher than with regular banks, and we have very low default rates.”
