An Infrastructure Repair Crisis Meets a Labor Shortage

Europe faces a hundreds-of-billions-of-euros backlog in infrastructure repair at the same time as a severe and worsening shortage of construction labor. Concrete renovation in particular — removing deteriorated concrete and abrasive blasting — is among the most physically punishing, hazardous, and hard-to-staff work on any job site, slowing the renovation of aging bridges, tunnels, and buildings.

What They're Building

Munich-based Sitegeist builds automated, AI-enabled modular robots that take on these tasks directly. The robots use advanced perception, AI-based decision support, and adaptive control to operate on real, non-standardized structures without needing pre-existing 3D models — reportedly removing deteriorated concrete up to 10x faster than manual crews. The modular platform starts with concrete renovation and is designed to expand to a broader range of autonomous construction tasks.

The company is already working directly with concrete-renovation contractors on live construction sites to validate and refine the platform.

Growth

Founded in 2025 by a four-person team with robotics, AI, and engineering roots at the Technical University of Munich, Sitegeist raised its €4M pre-seed in February 2026, co-led by b2venture and OpenOcean with participation from UnternehmerTUM and notable angels including Verena Pausder and Lea-Sophie Cramer.