InterGlobix Magazine Founder and Editor-in-Chief Jasmine Bedi spoke with René Gompel about the journey from Coolgradient’s 2020 beginnings to Lucend’s global Transparent AI platform for data centers. Gompel explains why human oversight remains at the core of Lucend’s approach, how the partnership with Mitsubishi Electric is shaping the company’s next chapter, and the paradox of using AI to drive efficiency even as AI itself fuels rising energy demand.
You started Coolgradient in 2020, years before the AI boom hit data centers. What did you see back then that others missed?
The original idea came from my co-founder, Jasper de Vries, and from there we built it into the product we have today. What we saw back then wasn’t specific to data centers at all. We had a conviction that AI could deliver real, measurable energy savings—that if you could genuinely make sense of the data a facility already produces, you could cut consumption dramatically without touching the hardware. What we didn’t fully grasp yet was how far that would go—that the same visibility which saves energy would also catch failing equipment before it takes a site down, extend the life of critical systems, and let a small team run a large estate. But we didn’t set out knowing it would land in the data center world. We just had an idea about using AI for energy optimization. Data centers turned out to be where it resonated most—where the stakes, consumption, and appetite for intelligence all came together. So, part of the story is vision, and part of it is being open enough to follow the problem to where it mattered most. What we did see early, and what I think others missed, was that this dilemma was a visibility gap before it was a technology gap: The data was there, but nobody was reading it, and AI was the right tool to change that.
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ABOUT RENÉ GOMPEL
René Gompel has over 20 years of experience across a variety of technology companies and industries, including service in the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps. At Lucend, he leads the company behind Gradient, a transparent-AI platform built on a simple idea: data centers should run smarter, not just bigger. Gradient shifts operators from reactive to predictive — anticipating failures, protecting uptime, extending the life of critical mechanical and electrical assets, and letting teams do more without growing headcount — while driving down energy, water, and CO2.
Gompel studied Management, Economics, and Law at HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht.
