Analysis
German climate-tech company 1Komma5Grad has been valued at $1.35 billion in a new financing round, Reuters reported, via Global Banking & Finance Review on October 12, as the company accelerates investment in Heartbeat, its energy-AI business. The round's size wasn't disclosed -- only the resulting valuation.
Betting On Energy AI, Not Just Heat Pumps
1Komma5Grad built its business selling and installing heat pumps, solar panels and EV chargers across Germany, bundling them with software. Heartbeat is the newer piece: an AI layer meant to orchestrate home energy systems -- batteries, solar, EVs -- in real time as electricity prices and grid demand shift. The company said in September it's targeting roughly $750 million in revenue for the 2026 financial year, and now says it will plow more than €100 million into Heartbeat specifically in 2027.
“None of them have 1Komma5Grad's installed European base, but none of them have to cross an ocean to defend market share either.”
CEO Philipp Schroeder told Reuters the company is weighing a move into the US: "We're considering entering the US, because we've seen how much drive and how much interest from investors is actually behind that." He said 2027 performance will shape the timing of a potential US listing.
What The Valuation Doesn't Tell You
A US push would put 1Komma5Grad up against a crowded home-energy and smart-grid field -- companies like Sunrun, Tesla Energy and a wave of VC-backed virtual power plant startups are already selling utilities and homeowners on software that manages when power gets used and stored. None of them have 1Komma5Grad's installed European base, but none of them have to cross an ocean to defend market share either.
The caveat: a $1.35 billion mark on a company whose round size itself wasn't disclosed means the market is pricing a headline valuation, not a verified deal structure. Revenue targets are also company-stated, not audited third-party figures -- "$750 million" is 1Komma5Grad's own aim, confirmed in September, but only once the hardware installation business is already generating real revenue to point to does a bundled hardware-plus-AI pitch earn a valuation like this.
For founders in adjacent categories, the read is that a bundled hardware-plus-AI pitch can still command venture-scale valuations in 2026 outside the US. For LPs, the simpler signal is that a 2027 US IPO timeline now has a named company attached to it, and Schroeder has put a concrete marker -- next year's revenue -- on when he'll decide.