The global standard for automated lighting engineering.
From floor plan to code-compliant lighting layout — in 60 seconds.
Lars Nellesen, CEO · Hannah Hoelzl, CPO · Marcel Nellesen, CTO
The problem
Lighting design is mandatory. And a bottleneck.
Every commercial construction project in Germany requires code-compliant lighting plans per DIN EN 12464-1 and ASR A3.4. The path to compliance is broken.
Time
40-80 hours of specialised manual work for a single floor plan.
Cost
EUR 3,400-6,800 planning fee per project — plus luminaire procurement.
Dependency
Qualified lighting designers are scarce, expensive (EUR 85/h) and do not scale.
Existing tools don't help
DIALux and Relux are free — but they are tools, not solutions. 10-20 hours of skilled work per project remain. Planphos replaces the work.
The solution
60 seconds. Code-compliant. Complete.
Planphos is the first generative AI platform to automate the entire lighting engineering project cycle — from code-compliant engineering to direct hardware procurement.
Marginal cost per plan: EUR 0.25. Manual: up to EUR 6,800.
Product roadmap
How it works
From floor plan to lighting layout in 60 seconds
Upload
PDF/DWG floor plan in the browser. No modelling, no preparation.
Analyse
AI identifies rooms, space labels, dimensions and ceiling types. 20 rooms in ~10 seconds.
Plan
AI classifies per DIN EN 12464-1, calculates luminaire count via utilance method.
Export
Validated PDF plan with luminaire IDs, legend, scale and disclaimer.
AI-first pipeline + deterministic norm validation. No hallucination on normative values.
Case study
Reference project: Architecture office, Bavaria
Architecture office, ground floor, 342 m2 net area, 20 rooms. One of the most demanding office projects: planning area (750 lx, UGR 16), 6 different room types. Manual lighting design by an experienced lighting designer.
| Manual | Planphos | |
|---|---|---|
| Floor plan analysis | 3 h | ~10 sec. |
| Room classification | 2 h | ~10 sec. |
| Norm value assignment | 2 h | automatic |
| Luminaire positioning | 8 h | ~15 sec. |
| Plan drawing | 5 h | automatic |
| Stage 1 total | ~20 h | < 20 min. |
| Cost (Stage 1) | ~EUR 1,700 | EUR 99/mo. |
Full project cycle (Stages 1-4)
- Manual: ~50 hours, ~EUR 4,250 fee
- Planphos: < 40 minutes, EUR 99-249/month
- Luminaire order value: EUR 22,582 net (unchanged)
ROI for Starter user (EUR 99/month)
- Manual planning cost: EUR 1,700-3,400
- Planphos Starter: EUR 99
- Net saving: EUR 1,601-3,301
- Return (ROI): 17x to 34x
Market opportunity
EUR 2.25 billion/year — in Germany alone
Total value of all lighting design services (DE). 150,000 projects/year. Bottom-up and top-down validated (2% variance).
Digitally-savvy offices (8,000) + Platform Fees + Transaction Revenue.
1,500 users + 65 manufacturers + transactions. 3.3% SAM penetration.
Geographic expansion
- Years 1-2: Germany (DIN EN 12464-1, ASR A3.4)
- Years 2-3: DACH — compatible standards, no development effort
- Year 3+: Core EU — ~EUR 8-12B additional TAM
Business model
Three revenue streams — sequentially unlocked
SaaS subscriptions
- Free: EUR 0 — evaluation, 2 plans/month
- Starter: EUR 99/month — solo architect, 20 plans
- Professional: EUR 249/month — office 2-5 people, 3 seats
- Enterprise: EUR 499/month — 10 seats, API
Blended ARPU: EUR 136/month. Gross margin: 94.9%.
Platform fees
Manufacturers pay for presence in AI-generated specifications. Basic EUR 2,400/year, Premium EUR 12,000/year.
Transactions
3-5% commission on brokered luminaire sales. Average order value EUR 15,000.
Revenue development
Financial projection
3-year summary (Base Case)
| Metric | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total revenue | EUR 36,448 | EUR 751,000 | EUR 3,178,000 |
| Gross margin | 93.5% | 91.0% | 93.5% |
| EBITDA | -EUR 354,117 | -EUR 18,260 | +EUR 1,777,320 |
| EBITDA margin | -972% | -2.4% | +55.9% |
| Users (EoY) | 125 | 600 | 1,500 |
| ARR (EoY) | EUR 204,000 | EUR 1,368,000 | EUR 4,050,000 |
EBITDA break-even: month 19-20. Pre-seed runway: 16-17 months.
Rule of 40 (Year 3): ARR growth 84% + EBITDA margin 56% = 140.
Unit economics
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| LTV:CAC | 5.4x | 11.7x | 22.3x |
| Payback | 3.5 mo. | 2.1 mo. | 1.5 mo. |
| Churn (monthly) | 5.0% | 4.0% | 3.0% |
Team
Domain + Distribution + Technology
Lars Nellesen
CEO13+ years of management and sales in the lighting industry.
- Occhio: tripled total revenue
- RIBAG: strategic turnaround
- Global scaling, manufacturer networks
Hannah Hoelzl
CPO20 years of architectural lighting design. 500+ completed projects.
- About Light: founder
- Bartenbach: Senior Consultant
- Foster & Partners, London
Marcel Nellesen
CTO15+ years of product & tech leadership.
- Tangany: CPO (regulated crypto custody)
- DATEV eG: 10 years, 50+ engineers
- Founded codecraftr: SaaS prototypes
Why this team?
Market access (Lars), domain depth (Hannah) and technical execution (Marcel). No other team in Germany combines 20 years of lighting design practice with 13 years of industry sales and 15 years of tech leadership.
Investment
EUR 500,000 Pre-Seed
Use of funds and milestones
Use of funds
2 senior engineers, cloud infrastructure, AI API costs
Content marketing, trade shows, SEO, direct sales
Lars + Hannah: EUR 5,000/month each (below market rate)
GmbH formation, GDPR, IP, accounting, reserve
Milestones to Seed round
- Month 6: MVP launch (Stage 1)
- Month 8: First paying customer (12 beta users)
- Month 11-12: 100 paying users, EUR 13,600+ MRR
- Month 12: Stage 2 launch (photometric calculation)
- Month 15-18: Seed close (EUR 2,000,000)
Terms
- Pre-money valuation: EUR 2,000,000
- Pre-seed volume: EUR 500,000
- Post-money: EUR 2,500,000
- Founder dilution: 20%
- Runway: 16-17 months
Path to Series A
| Pre-Seed | Seed (M15-18) | Series A (M24) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capital | EUR 500K | EUR 2M | ~EUR 5M |
| Users | 0 -> 125 | 125 -> 600 | 600 -> 1,500 |
| ARR | 0 -> 204K | 204K -> 1,368K | 1,368K -> 4,050K |
Implied pre-seed ROI: 5.5x in 24 months.
Schedule a conversation
We look forward to discussing an investment in Planphos.