Lucend (formerly Coolgradient) uses “Transparent AI” to analyze existing data center sensor data, providing actionable, human-verified recommendations that improve energy and water efficiency. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Lucend co-founder and co-CEO Jasper de Vries to learn more.
Jasper de Vries’ Background
Could you tell me more about your background? de Vries said:
“After studying Business Administration with a focus on decision support systems and intelligence, I built a career spanning more than two decades at the intersection of data, AI, and complex technical domains. I’ve led and scaled data- and AI-native products, teams, and organizations across industries, including energy, data centers, finance, and digital platforms, with a strong track record of turning advanced analytics into scalable, adopted solutions.”
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Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? de Vries shared:
“In 2019, my co-founder and I were asked to create a strategy for how data center operations would benefit from AI. The combination of their size, complexity, and AI’s huge potential to improve their performance, sustainability, and reliability is what I found immensely intriguing. We built the company from an. initial proof of concept into a globally deployed AI platform that delivers on that promise. My role spans strategy, product, technology, and execution. I focus on shaping Lucend’s long-term direction and work closely with users, partners, investors, and the team to continuously refine our vision and turn real-world feedback into better products, better outcomes, and more impact with amazing people.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? de Vries reflected:
“The first time we ever saw system dynamics work in a data center, where specific changes were made on the roof, and valves responded all the way down in certain assets in the server rooms. It’s understanding this dynamic, often based on non-linear cause-and-effect relationships driven by complex physics, that makes our work so interesting and valuable.”
“The second-best memories are from everyday encounters with our team. We have an amazing group of people, and working with them is such a joy.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? de Vries explained:
“Most of the data centers that power LLMs and other AI tools don’t even use AI to optimize operations. At Lucend, we’re changing that with our Transparent AI platform for data center operators. Our solution:
- Intakes billions of daily data points from existing sensors at data center facilities
- Leads with human-in-the-loop AI, meaning our solution presents data to human operators and makes operational recommendations that can be implemented at the user’s discretion.
- Our platform has consistently delivered
- ~40% reduction in power use effectiveness (PUE)
- ~25% reduction in power use
- ~30% reduction in water use
- ~40% improvement in team efficiency
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? de Vries acknowledged:
“Data centers are going through a major upheaval. 25 data center projects were canceled in 2025 – 4x as many as in 2024. But demand for computing power is still rising. Roughly 100 GW of new capacity is anticipated to come online between 2026 and 2030, forcing current and future operators to pursue energy-efficiency solutions to keep up.”
“Savings through Lucend can happen right now. We can be operational in a data center in just six weeks and deliver valuable financial savings and efficiency improvements to our clients. That’s why data center AI efficiency companies like ours are needed now more than ever. Our innovative solutions help existing data centers optimize operations and significantly reduce energy use and environmental impact through the very AI that is impacting their performance.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? de Vries noted:
“Before our rebrand in January, Lucend was known as Coolgradient. We’ve expanded our company’s reach beyond data center cooling and efficiency with our Transparent AI platform, which combines solutions for management, efficiency, and optimization, helping data centers continuously improve operations. We made the jump to Lucend to reflect the ways that our technology illuminates the inner workings of a data center, bringing transparency directly to its operators. Lucend illuminates the hidden opportunities in existing data, enabling operators to achieve extraordinary performance from their existing hardware. All with no risk, no new hardware, and no new CapEx.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? de Vries cited:
“It has been a busy start to 2026! Last month, as I mentioned, we rebranded from Coolgradient to Lucend, then we announced our expansion into the U.S., opened our new HQ in NYC, onboarded our first U.S. customer, and closed a $3.3M seed funding round from Remarkable Ventures Climate and other investors. These milestones mark major new opportunities for our company to make an even bigger impact on the data center industry this year and achieve huge savings and efficiency improvements for our clients.”
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? de Vries highlighted:
“At the heart of our pitch was a story we like to tell: the story of Declan, a data center manager in Dublin, Ireland. Every morning, Declan starts his day by reading the “news” but his newspaper isn’t the Financial Times or the Wall Street Journal. It’s his own data center, powered by Lucend.”
“Every morning, Declan opens our platform. Like a good newspaper, it tells him what has happened in his facility and, more importantly, what needs to happen that specific day.”
“Through our platform, Declan can see connections across thousands of data points — insights no human could track on their own — and get specific recommendations that reduce PUE, increase uptime, enhance reliability, and enable innovative maintenance approaches. The results are transparent, verifiable, and safe, all using existing infrastructure and data, no sensors or risky changes required.”
“What makes Lucend unique is that Declan decides which changes to implement and which recommendations to automate. We believe in the power of AI and that data center operators should make the final decisions. Every day, our platform provides data center operators with up-to-date recommendations, putting them in the driver’s seat to make the final call.”
“Please refer to additional success stories here:
https://getlucend.com/success-stories”
Funding/Revenue
Are you able to discuss funding and/or revenue metrics? de Vries revealed:
“Here is the official press release for our seed funding round of $3.3M mentioned above:
Total Addressable Market (TAM)
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? de Vries assessed:
“Data centers are expected to require roughly $7 trillion in capital outlays by 2030, according to a report by McKinsey & Co. Given the rapid pace of new data center construction, we’ve had to increase our TAM/SAM/SOM estimates each quarter over the past year. These accelerations are exceptional and challenging to keep up with, let alone predict, over the next 20+ years. One thing is sure: AI and all of its digital infrastructure are here to stay, and have become the most important infrastructure for the future.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? de Vries affirmed:
“Our solution differentiates in several ways. For one, we don’t require any upfront investments in additional hardware (sensors). Second, we focus on optimizing the entire data center rather than localized sub-optimizations, often based solely on energy, as some other companies do. Lastly, data centers are a very niche domain, as they are mission-critical infrastructure. From early on, we decided not to branch into adjacent industries but to focus on a strong product-market fit within this industry alone.”
“For example, this has led us to develop specific methods for ingesting sensor data without a direct connection to their operational networks, reducing cyber risks to zero. It’s also the driver behind our transparency, trust, and human-in-control promise.”
“Most notably, Lucend is in a unique position, as our customers’ biggest challenges cannot be solved by the way they’ve tried to solve these before: by adding new hardware. Supply chain issues drive the delivery 4-5 years out, and new hardware technologies like SMRs will take another decade or so to mature to the level data centers really need. Our software solution is available today, proven, deployed instantly, scales fast and globally, adapts in realtime and delivers results in just six weeks.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? de Vries concluded:
“Right now, we’re focused on utilizing our seed round investment to expand product capabilities and our U.S. market base. We’re continuing to automate and build smart recommendations with our Transparent AI to increase efficiency and output with our clients, build new solutions for future data centers that leverage them as power and storage facilities, and help them optimize to meet demand.”
