German clean energy startup 1KOMMA5° has raised over €70 million (USD $78 million), with the round valuing the company at $1.35 billion — up 35% from its July 2025 funding round and enough to earn it unicorn status.

The money is earmarked for accelerating development and commercialization of the company's platform, which connects home energy devices to the grid. That platform, Heartbeat AI, currently optimizes more than 100,000 energy systems, making it one of Europe's largest virtual power plants.

Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Hamburg, 1KOMMA5° supplies integrated clean energy hardware — solar panels, storage systems, heat pumps, air conditioning and EV chargers. Its software layer is where the new money goes.

What does the funding actually pay for?

The company plans to invest over €100 million in the Heartbeat AI platform in 2027, targeting three areas:

• AI development
• software capabilities
• go-to-market speed

Heartbeat AI connects and controls energy systems installed in customers' homes — batteries, heat pumps, solar panels and EV chargers — and sells electricity on their behalf on power exchanges. The platform aims to cut customers' energy costs and support grid stability by optimizing electricity generation and consumption.

That grid-balancing function is the commercial hook: aggregated household devices traded as a single dispatchable resource, not a collection of rooftop installs.

Micha Grüber, 1KOMMA5° CFO and Co-Founder, said:

"The new round was the first round focusing specifically on our energy AI solutions and was oversubscribed. We are making record investments in our software while our core hardware business remains profitable and cash-flow positive, and the company remains debt-free."

That structure matters for anyone tracking the balance sheet: hardware revenue funds software development, with no debt on the company's books.

Who put in the money?

b2venture led the round. Existing investors CalSTRS, eCapital, G2 Venture Partners and Eurazeo participated, alongside new investor Marunouchi Innovation Partners, a Japanese cleantech growth fund.

The entry of a Japanese growth fund into a European home-energy platform signals where the company sees expansion potential — grid-flexibility markets beyond its home base.

Philipp Schröder, 1KOMMA5° CEO and Co-Founder, said:

"The objective is clear: the energy system needs a universal energy AI that works as an end-to-end operating system. Our ambition is for Heartbeat AI to become exactly that and to bring clean, affordable energy to millions of people."

Why the valuation jumped 35%

The pre-money valuation of $1.35 billion represents a 35% increase over the July 2025 round — measured in six months. Oversubscription on an AI-focused round, with a profitable hardware business underneath, is the combination investors priced in.

For the distributed-energy sector, the signal is that aggregation software — not panel sales — is now where the multiples live.

The milestone to watch: whether the €100 million Heartbeat AI investment lands in 2027 as planned, and whether the 100,000-system virtual power plant scales toward the "millions" Schröder is targeting.