- Hamburg’s 1KOMMA5° raised €70M at a $1.35B valuation from old and new backers.
- The valuation is up 35% from the $1B it reached in June 2023.
- US entry and a listing are on the table, but 2027 results will decide the IPO.
Hamburg-based 1KOMMA5° reached a $1 billion valuation in June 2023, 23 months after it launched. Its new valuation is $1.35 billion, only 35% higher, while the company expects about €700 million in revenue in 2026 against roughly €450 million in 2023, a rise of about 55%.
The energytech company raised €70 million from existing and new investors, Börsen-Zeitung reported. The newcomer is Marunouchi Innovation Partners, a Tokyo climate tech fund backed by Mitsubishi Corporation. Börsen-Zeitung said the fund is expected to bring experience with energy investments in the United States.
Most of the money will go into Heartbeat AI, the software that links the solar panels, batteries, heat pumps, and electric vehicle chargers in customers’ homes. 1KOMMA5° plans to spend more than €100 million on it in 2027, Reuters reported, to automate electricity trading, billing, and metering.
CEO Philipp Schröder, a former Tesla Germany country director, told Reuters that 1KOMMA5° is considering US entry in 2027, citing “how much drive and how much interest from investors” he has seen behind the move.
Valuation up 35% since 2023, revenue forecast up about 55%
Börsen-Zeitung noted the valuation has barely moved since 2023, when a €215 million Series B led by G2VP made 1KOMMA5° a unicorn. A €150 million pre-IPO round led by CalSTRS, the California teachers’ pension fund, and G2VP lifted it only slightly in December 2024, Handelsblatt reported, without a disclosed figure. Tech Funding News covered that round after Sabanci Climate Ventures joined it in July 2025.
For 2026, 1KOMMA5° expects revenue of about $750 million, or €700 million, up 35% to 40%, and about €40 million in operating profit from its hardware business, it said on September 22, 2026. By TFN‘s calculation, the new valuation is about 1.7 times that revenue forecast.
For 2024, Schröder had spoken of revenue between €600 million and €750 million, Trending Topics reported. The company reported close to €520 million.
From one gigawatt to 20: what Heartbeat AI has to prove
Heartbeat AI controls one gigawatt of shiftable capacity, double the level a year earlier, and 1KOMMA5° wants 20 gigawatts by 2030, it said on May 20, 2026. Pooled this way, thousands of small devices form a virtual power plant that can be traded like one power station. The company charges a flat software fee rather than taking a margin on the electricity.
Software is still small. Heartbeat AI reached annualised revenue of about €30 million in August, nearly double the previous year, according to the company. By TFN‘s calculation, that is roughly 4% of the group’s expected 2026 revenue
The room to grow is large. The International Energy Agency estimates that only about 100 gigawatts of demand response, meaning households and businesses shifting power use when the grid needs it, was used worldwide in 2024, and roughly 30 gigawatts of that came from buildings.
A crowded field and a US test
Rivals are raising money too. London-based Axle Energy raised a $25 million Series A led by Energize Capital in July 2026 and says its devices represent about two gigawatts, double 1KOMMA5°’s figure, though companies count capacity in different ways.
Belgium’s NOX Energy raised a €3 million seed round on September 30, 2026, and has connected more than 10,000 devices. Berlin-based Cloover added a $100 million credit facility on September 1, 2026, and says it is profitable at a revenue run rate above $350 million. TFN has tracked the wider field in its list of 18 EU energy tech startups to watch, according to top VCs.
The US would be new ground. 1KOMMA5° already operates in Germany, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, and Australia, where Heartbeat AI became its fifth market. A listing is further off than it once looked. Schröder first pointed to a 2025 listing, then to 2026. The company shelved its US IPO plans in April 2025 after US trade and renewable energy policy changes unsettled markets, and Schröder now says 2027 performance will decide whether and when it lists.
Politics is part of the story as well. On October 21, 2025, 1KOMMA5° filed a complaint with the European Commission, arguing that Germany’s plan to subsidise 20 gigawatts of new gas power plants breaks state aid rules and disadvantages virtual power plants. Media reports later said Germany and the Commission had agreed initial conditions for 12.5 gigawatts.
1KOMMA5° was founded in 2021 by Schröder, Micha Grüber, Jannik Schall, Philip Liesenfeld and Michael Hinderer. It says it has raised nearly €400 million in equity since then and is debt free. Earlier backers include Porsche Ventures, G2VP, CalSTRS, Eurazeo, b2venture, Hamilton Lane, Norrsken VC, and Sabanci Climate Ventures.
Heartbeat AI is about 4% of revenue, and a listing waits on 2027 results. Can a company that earns most of its money installing hardware convince public investors to value it like a software business?
