After a year of significant growth and securing top-tier real estate customers in its home market, Norwegian PropTech startup Telescope has raised a €3.7 million seed round to help the European real estate industry move sustainability risk from a compliance checkbox to a strategic advantage.
by Vegard Blauenfeldt Næss
The €3.7 million round is led by Scale Capital and Dreamcraft Ventures, with participation from Curiosity VC and OBOS Oppstart. Founded in 2022 by Gustav Haaland, Marit Bjerkreim, and Mathias Wahl, the Telescope team brings deep expertise in sustainability, data science, and PropTech, aiming to reshape how real estate owners navigate climate risks.
As European regulators ramp up pressure on businesses to assess and disclose climate risks, real estate owners face an increasingly complex landscape. Telescope’s platform translates climate risk data into strategic, portfolio-level insights, enabling property owners to quantify and manage risks like biodiversity loss, physical climate threats, and regulatory transition risks – not just for compliance, but to unlock financial value.
“In every conversation I have, real estate owners tell me the same thing – they’re drowning in ESG reports, consultant slide decks, and EU acronyms, yet they’re still asking: ‘What does this actually mean for my buildings?’” says Gustav Haaland, CEO and Co-founder of Telescope. “We’re not here to add more paperwork. Unlike existing solutions, Telescope turns sustainability from an abstract compliance risk into tangible, financially driven decisions.”
“One way I like to look at this is that we’re taking our customers from trying to learn a language by reading a dictionary to using Duolingo instead,” says Gustav Haaland.
Hypergrowth in Norway, now expanding across Europe
In 2024, Telescope signed multiple of Norway’s leading real estate firms with a team of just eight people and minimal marketing spend. Now, the company is scaling its footprint, launching in Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands, while expanding its platform to serve financiers and investors in the real estate sector.
The impressive growth in Norway is one of the things that has drawn a lot of attention from investors, according to Joachim Schelde, Senior Associate at Scale Capital.
“What caught our attention was the team’s deep understanding of real estate owners’ pain points in identifying, assessing, and managing the sustainability risks facing their assets, such as floods, wildfires, protected species and polluted grounds,” says Joachim Schelde. “Their momentum in Norway – closing multiple Tier 1 customers in record time – signals a massive opportunity to redefine how the industry approaches climate risk.”
Mathilde Lyet, Principal at Dreamcraft Ventures, adds: “In a market flooded with generic sustainability tools, Telescope stands out with its laser focus on real estate. Their platform quantifies both climate risks and upsides – like the threat of landslides or flooding, and the ROI of energy upgrades for both owners and their tenants, enabling property owners to make financially impactful decisions, whether investing in renovations or securing green financing.”
With proven impact in Norway and fresh capital secured, Telescope is positioned to help property owners across Europe transform climate readiness from a challenge into a strategic strength.