You are definitely one of the climbers alongside Enpal: Today, Friday, the 1Komma5° group of companies has officially entered the startup Olympus. The Hamburg company, which sells solar systems, heat pumps, e-charging stations and associated software, is now valued at more than one billion euros. In a Series B, 215 million euros of venture capital could be collected from investors, in addition there is again the same amount of reinvestment options that can be offered to the companies bought out instead of cash. In total, 1Komma5° has now raised more than 400 million euros from investors.
G2VP from the USA, Porsche Ventures, Ecapital from Germany, Eurozeo from France and the billionaire entrepreneurial family Haniel are participating in the financing round. 1Komma5° was only valued at billions two years after it was founded. The strong expansion is being pushed by founder Philipp Schröder in a “buy & build” strategy. The Hamburg company has already bought 28 companies from the renewable energy sector, mostly companies in the photovoltaic sector. The purchases are paid partly in cash and partly in shares.
As a result, 1Komma5° has now grown to 1,300 employees, and according to Schröder, sales should more than double or even triple in 2023 from 200 million euros in 2022 to 500 to 600 million euros. At the moment, an enormously important window of opportunity for solar systems and heat pumps in Germany has opened up thanks to strong public subsidies, which are boosting demand, which has already increased (energy crisis, war in Ukraine, etc.).
1KOMMA5 buys Danish solar company Viasol, participation in Austria planned
Unlike arch-rival Enpal, 1Komma5° is not only focused on Germany, but has already made purchases in Germany, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Australia and Denmark. In an interview with Trending Topics, Schröder recently said that investments in Austria are also planned – so market entry in this country is imminent. Purchases are also to be made in the Italian and Spanish markets.
1Komma5° is no longer just a hardware seller and PV installer, but also in energy trading. Households can sell electricity they produce to 1Komma5° via a small, networked box called Heartbeat, and the company then trades this solar power on energy exchanges – with the promise of offering households better prices. The aim is to connect many solar households to decentralized virtual power plants.
1KOMMA5°: How solar households become part of a virtual power plant