1Komma5° becomes a unicorn thanks to new financing round
A startup with a billion-dollar valuation is such a rarity that it likes to be called a "unicorn." Now, 1Komma5°, a Hamburg-based company that launched just two years ago, has achieved this status. A new financing round of 215 million euros has made it possible.
1Komma5° writes its international success story at record speed
1Komma5° was founded in July 2021 by former Tesla manager Philipp Schröder and three other colleagues. The startup's goal is to enable private households to switch to renewable energies. In order to grow as quickly as possible, the startup is buying up craft businesses and other companies in the sector, in Germany and internationally. The most recent acquisition is Viasol from Denmark, the market leader in solar energy there. A detailed article on the history and activities of 1Komma5° can be found here.
The strong potential of 1Komma5° was already demonstrated by the Series A financing round in April 2022, when Porsche Ventures and b2venture, well-known family offices and the prominent manager Jan Klatten, among others, invested a total of 200 million euros. In the current Series B round led by the California-based investment firm G2VP, which specializes in sustainability issues, all existing investors are once again involved. The round is oversubscribed; for example, the mineral oil company Shell was rejected as a partner.
With the freshly raised money, 1Komma5° intends to further expand its team, which now consists of around 1,300 members, and its international business. After Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Italy and Australia, Spain and Austria are considered the next potential markets. Capital is also flowing into the further development of Heartbeat, an energy management system that offers the possibility of coordinating the operation of various hardware components such as heat pumps and charging stations in the best possible way. In this context, there is talk of a dedicated technology site in Berlin.
