What the business is
1KOMMA5° is a one-stop shop for home electrification — photovoltaic systems, batteries, heat pumps and EV chargers — tied together by its Heartbeat AI energy-management software.
The bet
That Germany's 2024 heating law makes heat pumps and solar the default home system, and that one company owning installation plus software can replace the utility.
How it started
Philipp Schröder and Jannik Schall founded 1KOMMA5° in Hamburg in 2021, betting that homes would electrify en masse. The catalyst came on January 1, 2024, when Germany's amended Building Energy Act (GEG) made 65% renewable energy binding for new heating systems in new development areas, with phase-ins for existing buildings — turning heat pumps into the regulatory default.
What happened
Growth followed the mandate: 1KOMMA5° sold over 10,000 heat pumps in Germany from the start of 2024, nearly quadrupled German installations in 2025, and passed 300,000 controllable systems worldwide. It raised almost €400M in equity, including a €150M pre-IPO round closed in December 2024 and extended in July 2025, while staying profitable in its core hardware business through a European solar-and-heat-pump downturn.
How it ended up
Still scaling: a debt-free CleanTech unicorn with ~2,500 employees, 120,000+ customers in seven markets, and a virtual power plant (Heartbeat AI) controlling over 500 MW of flexible capacity, heading toward an IPO.
What has to be true
A binding regulation (GEG 2024) created structural demand for heat pumps just as 1KOMMA5° had built a one-stop installation network.
Owning installation plus software (Heartbeat AI) gave it a defensible moat: hardware margins today, a virtual power plant that benefits from every additional system tomorrow.
It raised ~€400M of equity while staying profitable in hardware, letting it out-invest rivals in a European market that shrank for everyone else.
The regulatory tailwind is durable — GEG phases in obligations for existing buildings through 2026–2028, extending demand beyond the initial mandate.
What can be applied
When a regulation forces a market shift, the winner removes the complexity of complying: owning installation plus software turned a legal mandate into a long-term customer relationship.
Aftermath
As of January 2026, 1KOMMA5° is a debt-free CleanTech unicorn with ~2,500 employees, 120,000+ customers and 80 locations in seven markets. It sold 10,000+ heat pumps in Germany since early 2024 and nearly quadrupled German installations in 2025. Heartbeat AI optimizes 50,000+ systems and controls over 500 MW of flexible capacity, with €100M+ planned software investment through 2027 and a 2030 target of 1.5 million buildings converted. Management flags GEG subsidy uncertainty and the German recession as risks, but expects demand to rise as grid fees and CO2 pricing lift fossil-heating costs.
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