Optocycle

From Vision to Reality: The Origin Story of Optocycle

The construction industry is responsible for the largest flow of materials worldwide and, at the same time, is one of the sectors with the greatest untapped potential for a true circular economy. This is precisely where Optocycle comes in. Founded in Tübingen in 2022, the startup pursues a clear vision: A world where all construction waste is new building material.

The idea for Optocycle originated from an initially completely different usecase. The two founders, Max-Frederick Gerken and Lars Wolff, originally worked on intelligent image recognition in retail. The decisive turning point came through close contact with the recycling industry: an entrepreneur friend drew the founders' attention to a key problem, the lack of transparency in mineral construction waste. Up until then, material compositions had been predominantly estimated via visual inspection: slow, subjective, and prone to error.

For Gerken and Wolff, it quickly became clear: their technology could achieve a significantly greater leverage effect here than in its original field of application. Optocycle was born.

The Founders: Entrepreneurial Drive Meets Technological Depth

Max-Frederick Gerken

CEO & Co-Founder

Max-Frederick Gerken is the strategic mind of Optocycle. With a business administration background (University of Tübingen), he is responsible for business development, market strategy, and vision. His motivation: to make the construction industry structurally more sustainable and data-driven. For his work on intelligent, sustainable business models, he was named to the Forbes "30 under 30" DACH list in 2024.

Lars Wolff

CTO & Co-Founder

As the technical lead, Lars Wolff is the mastermind behind the Optocycle technology. He is responsible for the entire product development, from optical sensor systems and machine learning models to the software platform. Wolff brings experience from a US tech startup as well as from electrical engineering and met Gerken during his computer science studies in Tübingen.

The Breakthrough: Pilot Plants and First Industrial Applications

A central milestone was the collaboration with Heinrich Feess GmbH & Co. KG, one of Germany's most innovative construction waste recyclers. There, Optocycle installed its first pilot plant and tested the technology under real industrial conditions for the first time. From trucks to tipping areas to conveyor belts, material flows were seamlessly captured and analysed for the first time. The success of this pilot plant laid the foundation for scaling up: within a short space of time, a double-digit number of pilot projects followed across Germany, with customers such as Heinrich CEMEX, Otto Dörner, Blasius Schuster, and the Weimer Group. Today, Optocycle serves numerous customers in Germany, Spain, and France.

Technological Core: Machine Learning, Multispectral Sensors, and Edge Computing

Optocycle combines multispectral cameras, computer vision technology, and edge computing to analyse mineral construction waste in real time. The proprietary machine learning model recognises material types such as concrete, brick, or gypsum, identifies impurities, determines grain sizes, and delivers objective volume and quality data, directly at the process point.

The result is a "single source of truth" for the material flow: subjective estimates are replaced by reliable data. This creates transparency, lowers costs, reduces conflicts, and enables high-quality recycling instead of downcycling.

Conclusion: Optocycle as a Pioneer of the Circular Construction Industry

Optocycle demonstrates how deep tech, entrepreneurial spirit, and sustainability can work together. From a specific industry challenge, a scalable key technology has emerged within just a few years that has the potential to fundamentally transform the construction and recycling industries.

With a clear focus on data, transparency, and the circular economy, Optocycle is working to turn waste back into valuable material and make the vision a reality that all construction waste is new building material.