1Komma5° founder Phillip Schröder: 'Only 10-15% of investors are great investors'

I met Phillip Schröder at Slush, the annual maelstrom of founders, investors, and pitches that takes place every November in Helsinki, Finland. As we walked toward the speaker lounge for our interview, we were stopped repeatedly by investors eager to have a word. Schröder seemed used to the attention, handling each interruption politely and giving out his personal email like a badge of accessibility. Eventually, we found a quiet corner, grabbed a jug of water and two glasses, and sat down.

From Tesla to a $1bn valuation

Schröder garners attention in the startup world for a reason. His company, 1Komma5°, became a unicorn just two years after its founding in 2021 and now reportedly boasts €600m in revenues.

His path to those figures – and to our quiet corner of Slush – began over a decade ago at Tesla. Elon Musk hired him in 2013, when he was 29, to expand the EV business in Germany and Austria.

“One thing I learnt at Tesla is that if you want to solve a problem, you need to do whatever it takes to solve it,” Schröder tells Impact Loop.

After two years there, he joined Sonnen as managing director. The German company, acquired by Shell in 2019 for a reported €500m, develops home battery systems – bringing Schröder closer to the basis for his own venture. In 2021, at the peak of the climate tech bubble, he and four other clean-energy entrepreneurs founded 1Komma5°, which sells hardware such as solar panels and heat pumps, as well as Heartbeat AI, the company’s energy-management software.

“We were fortunate enough to be swimming the impact wave at the beginning when we founded the company,” he says. “There was sufficient capital and great talent to tap into.”

1Komma5° has raised almost $1bn in equity from investors including Norrsken VC, Eurazeo, Porsche Ventures and Franz Haniel & Cie. Its valuation is estimated at $2.4bn, according to Dealroom.

The 'right' investors

While 1Komma5° has achieved remarkable growth, the landscape has shifted significantly since the heydays of 2021. Climate tech funding has fallen sharply, and many investors have turned their attention to sectors like AI and defence.

Despite that, Schröder appears confident that the “right investors” will continue backing strong businesses – not matter how they're branded.

"I think you always have investors who, first of all, fundraise their LPs on a certain label," he explains. "And then they have an issue if that label is out of fashion."

"But I think great investors – and I think probably I would consider maybe 10–15% of all investors to be great investors – they will look through it," he continues. “[They see] what we bring to the table is super strong, regardless of what kind of trend and label is in fashion right now.”

While Schröder has had no lack of financial support, he doesn’t deny the broader political pushback against the green transition across the US and Europe. It’s an issue he is outspoken about – and one with direct consequences for his business.

Quarrel with the German government

1Komma5° recently filed a complaint with the EU Commission over Germany’s plan to build 20GW of new gas-fired power plants. The company argues that using billions in EU state aid to subsidise the plants violates competition rules – and ignores cheaper alternatives.

“We're trying to say, dear German government, dear EU Commission, there is a cheaper way to do it, which is decentralised assets,” he says. “And secondly: we are a power plant too! virtual power plants are the third pillar of the energy infrastructure.”

In the long term, he believes economics will win out, no matter the political climate.

“It always comes back to physics,” he says, as he pours another glass of water. “Even if right-wing politicians in Europe will take over, which I think we should be prepared for, physics are not going to change. If you don't activate the potential of decentralised assets, electricity and energy will be more expensive for everyone. And if you activate it, it will be less expensive. Simple.”

IPO plans

Rapid growth pushed 1Komma5° to consider an IPO following its €150m growth round in December 2024, but the company shelved those plans just months later. Schröder says the political backlash against renewable energy after the re-election of US President Donald Trump played a major role.

I asked him whether a listing is still on the horizon – and whether that would mean going public in the US or Europe.

“Right now I think there are more good reasons against an IPO than for one,” he says. “NASDAQ was our obvious choice when we first looked at it. Right now I think we would probably seriously consider a European listing as well.

"But I think it's too soon to even comment on it because it's so dynamic," he continues. "Like, what happens with Trump? What happens with China? What happens with Europe? And there might just be a couple of slight changes and then the entire assessment is you have to reassess it."

Despite the uncertainty, Schröder is convinced that going public is ultimately the right path.

“I think if 1Komma5° wants to become a company that's relevant over decades and that can actually service tens of millions of Europeans, I think it's really important that we have co-ownership with consumers. An IPO would be a great way of not losing control and selling the company to anyone, but to keep it independent and focused on its purpose.”