Energy startup: 1Komma5Grad increases valuation to $1.35 billion

The company has been considered a “unicorn” since 2023. It has now raised a further €70 million from existing and new investors.

Co-founder and CEO of the energy company 1Komma5Grad Philipp Schröder: “We are considering entering the US market.” Photo: Christoph Neumann

Munich. The Hamburg energy technology startup 1Komma5Grad has increased its valuation to $1.35 billion in a new round of financing and wants to use the fresh capital, among other things, to expand its AI-supported controls. According to its own information on Monday, 1Komma5Grad has raised 70 million euros from existing and new investors.

Added to this is the Japanese cleantech fund from Marunouchi Innovation Partners (MIP), from which 1Komma5Grad primarily hopes to gain experience with investments in energy in the USA. 1Komma5Grad has been considered a “unicorn” – a young company with a valuation of more than a billion dollars – since 2023.

In total, the company plans to invest more than 100 million euros in “Heartbeat AI” next year. With the energy management system, households should be able to automatically control the generation, storage and consumption of electricity.

The planned gradual end of the feed-in tariff in Germany has driven up demand for “Heartbeat AI”, explained 1Komma5Grad. Incoming orders in Germany rose by almost 50 percent in September alone. The start-up is currently active in seven countries and employs 3,000 people.

Co-founder and CEO Philipp Schröder told the Reuters news agency that 1Komma5Grad also wants to expand into the USA next year. “We are considering entering the US market because we see how much drive there is and how much investor interest there actually is.”

Last year, the company abandoned an IPO on the US technology exchange Nasdaq because US President Donald Trump's energy and trade policies had massively unsettled the markets. Schröder told Reuters that a possible new attempt to go public depends on the economic success of 1Komma5Grad in the coming year.

For the current year, the company, founded in 2021, is targeting sales of 700 million euros, which would be growth of 35 to 40 percent. According to the company, the core hardware business is already profitable: by 2026, an operating profit (Ebitda) of around 40 million euros is expected.