1Komma5°: Series B round turns cleantech startup into a unicorn

The Cleantech 1Komma5° has completed a Series B round – with a valuation of more than one billion euros. This means that the magic limit has been crossed just two years after the company was founded.

The German startup scene has a new unicorn in its ranks: 1Komma5° from Hamburg has raised 215 million euros in venture capital from investors in a Series B round – with a valuation of more than one billion euros, as founder Philipp Schröder explained in an interview with Gründerszene. In addition, there is the same amount of buyback options that the startup can offer in lieu of cash.

The oversubscribed round was led by Silicon Valley-based clean tech investor G2VP, who also owns Swiss unicorn Scandit. According to Schröder, all major existing investors, including Porsche Ventures, Ecapital from Münster, Eurozeo from France and the billionaire entrepreneurial family Haniel, have gone along with it. “We looked for investors to be impact-focused and understand the clean tech industry. We had to turn down a few interested parties,” says the founder.

The company, which was only founded two years ago, buys up specialist electrician companies nationwide, modernizes them and brings them together on a large, digital platform. In the meantime, the startup has also set up its own operations in several countries. The installation of solar systems, energy storage, charging stations and heat pumps should be faster and more efficient. According to the founder, large customers in particular have had to seek out several providers for climate-friendly renovations, who often work according to different standards. 1Komma5° wants to change that.

read too

Ex-Tesla manager Philipp Schröder: “Sometimes I wouldn’t have hired myself”

According to the startup, it has bought 28 specialist companies in six countries – Germany, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Australia and Denmark – since 2021 and set up about the same number itself. Most recently, Viasol, the Danish market leader for photovoltaics and power storage, was added. As compensation, the companies receive shares in 1Komma5°. According to Schröder, the company has installed a total of 80,000 systems to date. With the new money, it now wants to take over other craft businesses in Italy, Spain and “most likely” in Austria.

Investments are also being made in the Heartbeat energy manager, which 1Komma5° has been offering since the beginning of the year. The software, a kind of virtual power plant, connects a customer’s systems with each other and with the electricity market and is intended to optimize self-consumption and enable direct marketing of the electricity generated. In order to further develop the technology, according to Schröder, the startup is currently building its own research and development site in Berlin. According to this, an amount in the double-digit millions is to flow into the heartbeat project, which has so far been available in Germany, Sweden and recently also in Denmark.

According to the founder, 1Komma5° has a total of 1300 employees. Last year sales were around 200 million euros, for this year he is aiming for 500 to 600 million euros, says Schröder. In previous financing rounds, around 300 million euros of risk capital had already flowed into the young company, 200 million euros of which was in a Series A round in April last year. There is still room for improvement: After the latest round of financing, the founders still hold around 40 percent of the shares themselves.

read too

On the threshold of the unicorn: Philipp Schröder relies on these top managers for his hyped energy start-up