Cool. Quiet. Clean.
Fraunhofer Spin-off Qurie Raises €2.2 Million Seed Funding to Redefine Refrigeration Technology

• Qurie GmbH from Freiburg develops electrocaloric refrigeration systems – quiet, compact and completely free of conventional refrigerants – filling a gap that alternative cooling technologies have so far failed to close: economic competitiveness without a compressor and without refrigerants.
• HTGF, TT49 and Aepikur GmbH invest a combined €2.2 million in a seed round.
• The first target market is industrial enclosure cooling – a stepping stone into a global multi-billion-euro market with strong regulatory tailwinds from the EU F-Gas Regulation.

The HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) industry faces fundamental challenges: regulatory, environmental and technological. Qurie has the answer. The Freiburg-based start-up – founded in 2026 as a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques IPM – develops electrocaloric refrigeration systems that operate without compressors, refrigerants or pressure build-up: quieter, more efficient and more sustainable than anything previously possible. In April 2026, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Technology Transfer Fund TT49 and Aepikur GmbH jointly invested €2.2 million in Qurie.

Cooling Through Material Intelligence

Conventional refrigeration systems have relied on a 19th-century principle: compression and evaporation of refrigerants. The EU F-Gas Regulation is setting a regulatory expiry date for this era – and alternative approaches such as magnetocaloric or elastocaloric cooling have so far failed to achieve competitive total operating costs. Qurie takes a fundamentally different approach: electrocaloric materials – certain ceramics and polymers – change their temperature when an electric field is applied or removed. Qurie harnesses this reversible physical effect in precisely stacked material structures to build complete refrigeration systems – without a compressor, without refrigerants, with minimal mechanical components. At the heart of the technology is a globally patented active electrocaloric heat pipe (AEH), developed and extensively tested at Fraunhofer IPM over more than ten years. The theoretical efficiency of such systems exceeds 80 percent – conventional compressors reach a maximum of 50 percent, representing a potential energy saving of around 40 percent.

“With our heat pipe approach, we transfer heat within the system very efficiently and can achieve significantly higher pumping frequencies than previously possible with liquid-based heat transport. This is what makes our technology genuinely competitive for the first time.” Dr. Kilian Bartholomé, CTO and Co-Founder, Qurie GmbH

Science. Engineering. Impact.

Qurie was founded by Dr. Christian Vogel (CEO), a renowned expert in novel cooling systems, and Dr. Kilian Bartholomé (CTO), a long-standing researcher at Fraunhofer IPM. Their interdisciplinary team of more than ten experts in materials science, thermodynamics and engineering works at the intersection of fundamental research and industrial application – with the goal of transforming global HVAC infrastructure. The miniaturizable solid-state architecture opens up entirely new form factors: from chip cooling and portable medical devices to automotive and building technology. The first target market is industrial enclosure cooling – a segment with high precision requirements and no fully satisfactory solution currently available. From there, Qurie plans to expand into commercial refrigeration, medical technology, electronics and automotive. Development will be further supported until the end of 2026 by a research programme funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE).

“The HVAC industry is facing a fundamental transformation – regulatory, technological and economic. We have reached a point where we can demonstrate that our technology not only works, but also makes economic sense. This is the moment we have been working towards.” Dr. Christian Vogel, CEO and Co-Founder, Qurie GmbH

“Qurie addresses a challenge that has occupied the refrigeration industry for decades: moving away from climate-damaging refrigerants and inefficient compressors – without compromising on cost. The team has developed a technically compelling answer, backed by strong patents and more than ten years of research at Fraunhofer IPM. We are very delighted to support Qurie on this journey.” Dr. Gernot Berger, Senior Investment Manager, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF)

About Qurie GmbH
Qurie GmbH was founded in 2026 as a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques IPM in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. The company develops next-generation electrocaloric cooling systems – quiet, compact and completely free of conventional refrigerants. Founded by scientists with deep expertise in materials research and thermodynamics, Qurie works at the intersection of fundamental research and industrial application – with the goal of transforming global HVAC infrastructure. The company employs more than ten experts at its Freiburg location. www.qurie.de

About TT49
TT49 is the successor fund of FTTF (Fraunhofer Technology Transfer Fund), an independent early-stage venture capital investor for young deep-tech companies from all German research organizations (TT stands for Tech-Transfer, +49 is the country code for Germany). With a fund volume of >70 million euros, TT49 finances start-ups in very early phases and can invest up to 7 million euros per company. Since its inception in 2019, the fund has invested into >40 startups.