With the help of the top manager, the Hamburg-based company aims to expand its market leadership for intelligent individual room control in non-residential buildings
A strong signal for the heating transition: Toon Bouten is now advising the Hamburg-based climate protection company vilisto, which specializes in increasing the energy efficiency of non-residential buildings. The 65-year-old will take over as Chairman of the Advisory Board. From 2017 to 2023, Bouten was Managing Director of tado, an international provider of smart heating and energy management for the home.
“I am delighted to take over the chairmanship of the Advisory Board. vilisto has considerable potential thanks to its cutting-edge technology and great team. The market for digital heat management for commercial and public buildings is enormous. Only when all buildings are equipped with smart energy solutions can a climate-neutral economy be achieved,” says Toon Bouten.
vilisto, founded in 2016 by Christoph Berger, Christian Brase and Lasse Stehnken, develops intelligent thermostats with patented presence sensors that save up to 32 percent energy in non-residential buildings. More than 250 customers from the public and corporate sectors are already using the digital heat management solution, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection. In 2023, the company received five million euros in a Series A financing round from SET Ventures, E.R. Capital Holding and existing investors.
“As an internationally successful manager in corporations and start-ups with many years of experience with tado in the smart heating sector, Toon is an excellent sparring partner for vilisto. His expertise will play a key role in shaping the company’s business model as we add further services and features to build a wholistic smart heating platform for vilisto’s customers in the office and public building sector,” says Dr. Till Stenzel, Partner at SET Ventures.
“Attracting an industry leader like Toon to vilisto honors us and underscores the importance of our solution. We have big plans for the coming years and want to empower even more building managers to implement the heat transition – for a climate-neutral building stock. We are therefore very grateful for the additional support of this thought leader. I look forward to further developing vilisto together with Toon,” adds Christoph Berger, Managing Director of vilisto.
Toon Bouten has worked across Europe for over 35 years in senior positions in the electronics, internet services and energy transition industries for companies such as Philips Electronics, Compaq Computers, GN Store Nord/Jabra, jobline and Tomorrow Focus. Bouten was born in the Netherlands and holds an engineering degree from Eindhoven University of Technology. He lives with his family in Munich.
About vilisto
vilisto is a Hamburg-based climate protection company that uses digital heat management to reduce energy consumption in non-residential buildings. At the heart of the energy-saving solution are intelligent thermostats that use patented, integrated sensors and self-learning algorithms to detect room usage and automatically optimize the temperature. This not only saves energy, but also CO2 emissions. vilisto was founded in 2016 by Christoph Berger, Christian Brase and Lasse Stehnken and currently employs around 80 people. More than 250 customers are already part of the climate mission.
