€779.2k · Other round · Cleantech · Stuttgart, Germany
Stuttgart-based hydrop systems announced that it had closed €779,200 in financing, exceeding its original €600,000 target. The company said 213 people participated, ranging from crowd investments starting at €100 to equity commitments of as much as €150,000. It plans to use the financing to begin series production, expand sales and prepare the business for international growth.
The exact announced close was €779,200. Tech.eu records the event at a rounded €780,000, while the live FunderNation campaign page now displays €794,000 committed by 215 investors. This brief uses the company’s closing announcement figure and treats the higher platform total as a later update rather than part of the original announcement.
Retrofitting the meter already in the building
The company’s hydropmeter clips onto an existing central water meter and reads it optically, avoiding a plumbing replacement. According to hydrop’s product documentation, the device can record the meter up to once per second, send consumption data to its app and integrate with systems including Home Assistant and ioBroker. Its Protect service is designed to flag leaks and unusual consumption, although the company says some Protect functions remain in development.
That retrofit approach shapes the commercial model. hydrop sells the hardware upfront and offers paid monitoring software, while the same data can support smart-home, property and industrial use cases. The investment case presented on FunderNation says more than 1,000 devices had been sold and describes reseller and insurance channels as routes to larger volumes. Scaling production matters because a larger run can reduce unit costs; recurring software revenue can then add value after each device is installed.
From direct sales to larger buildings
The financing is intended to move hydrop beyond its initial direct-to-consumer sales. The campaign materials outline a planned 2,000-unit production run, further work on electronics and meter compatibility, and expansion through resellers and B2B pilots. The company also wants to support low-frequency mobile connectivity for installations where Wi-Fi is impractical, a requirement for larger properties and industrial sites.
hydrop was founded in Stuttgart in 2024 by Katrin Kreidel, Raimund Koop and Moritz Emberger after earlier support from the EXIST and Junge Innovatoren programmes. The round gives the team capital to test whether early household demand can translate into repeatable distribution through property, industrial and insurance partners. Execution will depend on widening meter compatibility and delivering the planned monitoring features without making installation more complex.
