Sonnen Acquisition, Valuation, Funding & Investors

Sonnen was acquired by TIVEN in August 2026.

Sonnen acquisition price

Undisclosed

Acquired by TIVEN · Aug 2026

Cumulative funding Sonnen raised

$169M

across 4 funding rounds

Key investors in Sonnen

  • eCAPITAL
  • Munich Venture Partners
  • SET Ventures
  • Inven Capital
  • GE Ventures
  • Shell Ventures
  • Envision Group
  • Capital Invest

Sonnen Overview

About Sonnen

Sonnen is a German provider of smart battery storage systems integrated with energy management and virtual power plant capabilities. Wildpoldsried-headquartered Sonnen offers lithium-ion batteries in sizes from 5 kWh to 30 kWh for homes, farms, and businesses. The SonnenBatterie, launched in 2011, connects to solar inverters and participates in Germany's grid stabilization programs. Sonnen expanded to the US and Australia after Shell acquired a majority stake in 2019.


Founded

2010

HQ

GermanyWildpoldsried

Website

sonnen.de

Status

Acquired

Customer focus

B2B & B2C

Revenue model

Product sales

Sonnen Acquisition

Sonnen was acquired by TIVEN for an undisclosed price on 24 August 2026.

Before the acquisition Sonnen had raised $169M across 4 funding rounds.

Shell completed the sale of the sonnen Group, the German residential battery storage and virtual power plant company, to TIVEN in August 2026. TIVEN is an international asset manager and family office headquartered in Malta with offices in Grunwald and Munich, and it was advised by AURELIUS WaterRise. Shell confirmed the completed sale to the trade press and said the step supports its efforts to optimise its portfolio; no price was announced, though Handelsblatt reported a price in the low hundreds of millions of euros. Shell had acquired sonnen in 2019 for almost EUR 500 million. TIVEN acquired 100 percent of sonnen's global business, including sonnen USA, and Handelsblatt reported that it intends to restructure the company with a view to a later resale. Sonnen was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Wildpoldsried, Germany. It makes home energy storage systems for households and small businesses, and its sonnenCommunity and virtual power plant programmes pool batteries to supply grid services. In the United States, sonnen USA manufactures in Stone Mountain, Georgia, and runs virtual power plant programmes with partners in Texas, Massachusetts and Utah.

Sonnen acquisition details
AcquirerDateType
  • TIVEN
24 Aug 2026PE buyout

Sources: apnews.com, energy-storage.news, ess-news.com

Sonnen Funding History

Sonnen has raised a total of $169M across 4 funding rounds.

Sonnen's first fundraising round was a $4M Series A in January 2013. The most recent completed round was a $71M Series E in May 2018.

Sonnen funding rounds

Sonnen funding rounds
DateStageInvestorsRaisedDeal Summary
May 2018Series EeCAPITAL (lead); Shell Ventures (lead); Munich Venture Partners; Inven Capital$71MSonnen, a German company specializing in smart residential solar storage solutions and virtual power plants, closed a €60 million (approximately $70 million) financing round on May 23, 2018, led by Shell Ventures with participation from all existing investors including eCAPITAL Entrepreneurial Partners (also referred to as E-Capital), Inven Capital, Munich Venture Partners, GE Ventures, and Envision. The funds were earmarked for accelerating international expansion, particularly in the United States and Australia, where sonnen had already launched its sonnenCommunity network the previous year. Alongside the investment, sonnen and Shell's New Energies division entered a strategic cooperation agreement to integrate Shell's EV-charging solutions into sonnen's virtual power plant, enhance grid services, and explore synergies in innovative energy propositions. The round underscored sonnen's position as a leader in distributed energy storage, with its VPP designed to be technologically agnostic, allowing integration of various solutions despite sonnen having developed its own EV charger. CEO Christoph Ostermann highlighted the need for continued investments to grow faster than the energy storage market and advance technologies like energy sharing. Shell Ventures provided the largest portion of the capital, signaling strong confidence from both new and existing backers in sonnen's vision of becoming the 'utility of the future' with clean, affordable energy. Approximately nine months later, in February 2019, Shell acquired 100% of sonnen from all shareholders including Inven Capital, following this initial investment, positioning sonnen to expand reliable, affordable cleaner energy offerings globally.
Oct 2016Series DeCAPITAL (lead); Envision Group; Munich Venture Partners; Thomas Putter; SET Ventures; GE Ventures; Inven Capital$85MSonnen Group, a German energy technology company based in Wildpoldsried, develops intelligent battery storage systems and smart energy management solutions. The company manufactures the sonnenBatterie smart energy management system at facilities in Germany and San Jose, California, enabling homeowners to produce, store, and share their own electricity through its sonnenCommunity platform. By October 2016, sonnen had deployed 15,000 sonnenBatterie systems worldwide and was recognized as the market leader in intelligent battery storage in Europe. The company had won multiple awards including MIT Technology Review's 50 Smartest Companies 2016, Cleantech Global 100 for 2015 and 2016, and Greentech Media's 2016 Grid Edge Award for innovation. In October 2016, sonnen completed a growth capital financing round raising $85 million USD from investors including eCAPITAL ENTREPRENEURIAL PARTNERS, Envision Group, GE Ventures, Inven Capital, Munich Venture Partners, SET Ventures, and Thomas Putter. The company planned to use proceeds to accelerate product development including its energy sharing platform sonnenCommunity and expand internationally into the United States, Australia, the UK, and Italy. The financing enabled sonnen to continue development of innovations including sonnenFlat, a virtual power plant solution that could aggregate thousands of sonnenBatteries into a single storage pool for grid balancing services.
Dec 2014Series BeCAPITAL (lead); Munich Venture Partners; Capital Invest; SET Ventures$9M-
Jan 2013Series AeCAPITAL (lead)$4M-

Who has invested in Sonnen?

9 investors have backed Sonnen across its funding rounds, including eCAPITAL, Munich Venture Partners, SET Ventures, Inven Capital, GE Ventures and Shell Ventures.

Lead investors include eCAPITAL and Shell Ventures.


Sonnen Investors

Investors in Sonnen by funding rounds participated
InvestorHQRoundsRoleFirst check
eCAPITALGermanyMünster4LeadJan 2013
Munich Venture PartnersGermanyMunich3ParticipantDec 2014
SET VenturesNetherlandsAmsterdam2ParticipantDec 2014
Inven CapitalCzech RepublicPrague2ParticipantOct 2016
Envision GroupChinaShanghai1ParticipantOct 2016
Capital InvestUnited StatesRaleigh, NC1ParticipantDec 2014
Thomas PutterUnited KingdomLondon1ParticipantOct 2016

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Sonnen Competitors

Sonnen competitors include listed companies like Energy Vault, Henan Yicheng New Energy, Ballard Power Systems and Hyliion, and private ones like Xinjie Energy and Infinitum.

Public and private companies comparable to Sonnen
CompanyHQStatusRevenueEBITDAValuationRevenue Multiple
Energy VaultUnited StatesUnited StatesPublicly listed$204M($83M)$589M2.7x
Xinjie EnergyChinaShenzhenPrivate--$306M-
Henan Yicheng New EnergyChinaChinaPublicly listed$530M($30M)$1.1B-
Ballard Power SystemsCanadaCanadaPublicly listed$99M($85M)$542M0.4x
InfinitumUnited StatesAustin, TXPrivate--$538M-
HyliionUnited StatesUnited StatesPublicly listed$3M($60M)$534M37.2x
Last FYEV/RevenueEV/EBITDA
RevenueEBITDALast FYLTM2027ELast FYLTM2027E
Ballard Power Systems$99M($85M)0.5x0.4x(0.6x)(1.0x)
Hyliion$3M($60M)136.1x37.2x(7.9x)(10.2x)
Veken Technology Co$213M$7M2.2x-63.7x-
Schoeller-Bleckmann$511M$80M1.3x1.3x8.0x8.9x
JinkoSolar$9.8B($45M)0.7x0.7x(147.1x)17.7x
Oil States International$669M($49M)0.8x0.8x(10.4x)6.6x
XP Power$309M$26M2.4x2.2x28.5x12.7x
Energy Vault$204M($83M)3.8x2.7x(9.3x)(37.8x)

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Common questions about Sonnen

When was Sonnen founded?Sonnen was founded in 2010.
Where is Sonnen headquartered?Sonnen is headquartered in Wildpoldsried, Germany.
Is Sonnen publicly listed?No, Sonnen was acquired by TIVEN in August 2026.
Who acquired Sonnen?Sonnen was acquired by TIVEN in August 2026.
How much funding has Sonnen raised?Sonnen has raised $169M across 4 funding rounds.
What was Sonnen's last funding round?Sonnen's last funding round was a $71M Series E in May 2018, led by eCAPITAL and Shell Ventures.
Who are Sonnen's investors?Sonnen's investors include eCAPITAL, Munich Venture Partners, SET Ventures, Inven Capital, Envision Group, Capital Invest, Thomas Putter, GE Ventures and Shell Ventures.
Which companies are comparable to Sonnen?Companies comparable to Sonnen include Energy Vault, Xinjie Energy, Henan Yicheng New Energy, Ballard Power Systems, Infinitum and Hyliion.

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