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- Sonnen
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
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
Website
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.
| Acquirer | Date | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 24 Aug 2026 | PE 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
| Date | Stage | Investors | Raised | Deal Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2018 | Series E | eCAPITAL (lead); Shell Ventures (lead); Munich Venture Partners; Inven Capital | $71M | Sonnen, 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 2016 | Series D | eCAPITAL (lead); Envision Group; Munich Venture Partners; Thomas Putter; SET Ventures; GE Ventures; Inven Capital | $85M | Sonnen 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 2014 | Series B | eCAPITAL (lead); Munich Venture Partners; Capital Invest; SET Ventures | $9M | - |
| Jan 2013 | Series A | eCAPITAL (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
| Investor | HQ | Rounds | Role | First check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Lead | Jan 2013 | ||
| 3 | Participant | Dec 2014 | ||
| 2 | Participant | Dec 2014 | ||
| 2 | Participant | Oct 2016 | ||
| 1 | Participant | Oct 2016 | ||
| 1 | Participant | Dec 2014 | ||
| 1 | Participant | Oct 2016 | ||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all 9 Sonnen investors. Start Free Trial | ||||
Benchmark 350K+ Funding Rounds and Disclosed VC Valuation Multiples
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Start Free TrialSonnen 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.
| Company | HQ | Status | Revenue | EBITDA | Valuation | Revenue Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Publicly listed | $204M | ($83M) | $589M | 2.7x | ||
| Private | - | - | $306M | - | ||
| Publicly listed | $530M | ($30M) | $1.1B | - | ||
| Publicly listed | $99M | ($85M) | $542M | 0.4x | ||
| Private | - | - | $538M | - | ||
| Publicly listed | $3M | ($60M) | $534M | 37.2x |
Sonnen Public Comps
Sonnen is no longer listed, but its public comps include Ballard Power Systems, Hyliion, Veken Technology Co, Schoeller-Bleckmann, JinkoSolar, Oil States International, XP Power, Energy Vault, Babcock & Wilcox and Nano Nuclear Energy.
| Last FY | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | EBITDA | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | |
| $99M | ($85M) | 0.5x | 0.4x | (0.6x) | (1.0x) | |||
| $3M | ($60M) | 136.1x | 37.2x | (7.9x) | (10.2x) | |||
| $213M | $7M | 2.2x | - | 63.7x | - | |||
| $511M | $80M | 1.3x | 1.3x | 8.0x | 8.9x | |||
| $9.8B | ($45M) | 0.7x | 0.7x | (147.1x) | 17.7x | |||
| $669M | ($49M) | 0.8x | 0.8x | (10.4x) | 6.6x | |||
| $309M | $26M | 2.4x | 2.2x | 28.5x | 12.7x | |||
| $204M | ($83M) | 3.8x | 2.7x | (9.3x) | (37.8x) | |||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all Sonnen competitors and their valuation data. Start Free Trial | ||||||||
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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