RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – SOLAR ENERGY
- Angaza Designs closed a $10.5M Series B funding led by Emerson Collectives including Rethink Impact, Salesforce Ventures, Social Capital, and StartX. Link
- Tespack raised a $2.36M funding round led by WOW ventures with participation from Neal Dempsey of Bay Partners. Link
- Oorjan, a solar rooftop startup raised $450k in seed funding round led by Globevester. Link
- Ampt secures $15M in funding by Doug Schatz and Bohemian Investments. Link
- Pegasus Solar has closed on a Series A round of equity funding led by Ecosystems Integrity Fund with participation from Okapi Capital, Howard Wenger, Mike Miskovsky. Link
- Envision Solar has raised $1.5M as conventional debt and a $3M as a post-IPO round. Link
- FlixBorough Eco Technologies has been awarded a grant of $132k from the UK Steel Enterprise. Link
SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND
Luzpac (Berlin,2016) – Luzpac designs and supplies customized handbags that charges mobiles phones, laptops, and other electronic gadgets by harnessing sun power through PV panels. It has a detachable solar module system with self-device recognition port that can be used for charging batteries. The solar pads that go into this bag are detachable and are supplied by SunPower USA.
LEADER BOARD – SOLAR ENERGY
Hardware Developer
SunPower (1985, Athens, IPO) – Designs and manufactures high-efficiency silicon solar cells and solar panels based on an all-black contact cell having an all-black appearance. Went public in November 2005.
BrightSource Energy (2004, Oakland, $805M) – Designs and builds large scale solar plants that deliver solar energy in the form of steam and/or electricity. Backed by Google, Morgan Stanley, DFJ among others.
Independent Power Producer
Silicon Ranch (2011, Nashville, $288M) – Integrated solar service provider focusing on developing utility-scale solar plants and offering turnkey Solar EPC services. Backed by Partners Group and Greystone.
Nippon Renewable Energy (2013, Tokyo, $250M) – Solar energy developer which manages and operates solar power facilities from the development and construction stages through to the operational stage. Backed by Equis Capital Partners and Partners Group.
Project Developers
Solairedirect (2006, Paris, $341M, Acq.) – Owns and operates solar farms as well as undertakes solar EPC contracts. The company has presence in France, India, America, Latin America among other countries. Backed by IADB, Capital Stage, Blackrock, Demeter Partners among other.
Brite Energy (2014, Romeoville, $264M) – Brite Energy offers solar installation services to residential and commercial spaces. The company is backed by Protection 1 (USA’s full-service security company) and co-owned by GTCR
Solar-as-a-service
SolarCity (2006, San Mateo, IPO, Acq.) – Full-service solar provider for homeowners, businesses and government organizations. Backed by Bank of America, DFJ, Silverlake Partners etc., among others. IPO-ed in December 2012.
Sunnova (2010, Houston, $1.1B) – Integrated solar installation, finance, and solar leasing services. Backed by Triangle Peak
Partners, Franklin Square Capital Partners etc., among others.
Solar Products
Envision Solar (2006, San Diego, IPO) – Designs and builds solar trees and solar powered parking structures. Went public in May 2010.
Petra Systems (2006, South Plainfield, $40M) – Company offers smart light controller, solar power generator, wireless networking, support for surveillance & sensor networks, network gateways and battery backup. Backed by ES Ventures, Element Partners etc., among others.
Solar Financing
Solarbao (2014, Shanghai, $40M) – Solarbao gives regular retail investors a chance to make low-risk investments in solar power stations. Investors buy solar panels, lease them to solarbao.com.hk. When they sign the entrusted financial lease contract, the panels are installed in power stations, and fixed monthly returns are paid to the investors.
Software Solutions
Fat Spaniel (2003, San Jose, $28M, Acq.) – Independent provider of critical monitoring and reporting services for the renewable energy industry. The company’s solutions are utilized by solar power producers, financiers, system integrators, and OEMs.
Leaderboard includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.
For latest updates, visit Solar Energy feed.
