SolarEdge recently secured $25 million in VC funding that it will use to maintain its lead in the PV optimizer market despite steep competition from companies within Israel and abroad.
Unaffected by a global decrease in venture capital investments in cleantech, Israeli solar energy company SolarEdge has successfully raised $25 million in a Series C round from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Opus Capital, Genesis Partners and several other investors.
SolarEdge, which has created “intelligent panels” that work together with a central Power Box to enable the production of up to 25% more energy, plans to use the funding to increase its production capacity and market growth.
“SolarEdge has received wide market acceptance in the solar inverter domain within a very short time frame. We will use this financing to further accelerate our growth to meet the soaring demand for our products worldwide, and intensify local sales and support activities in all major markets,” said Guy Sella, Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of SolarEdge. “The funding will enable us to multiply our production capacity without compromising on quality and reliability.”
The announcement comes at a time when the pace of innovation in solar is lightning fast and the competition is stiff. Several competitors, including National Semiconductor Corp., Azuray Technologies Inc., and, fellow-Israeli company Tigo Energy, have announced new innovations and partnerships in recent weeks.
Most recently, Tigo Energy, which has optimizers that are 20% effective, announced that it is collaborating with Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP), a producer of crystalline silicon solar panels, to develop smart panel technology for PV solar installations that integrates Tigo’s solution into Suntech’s solar panels. The integration is expected to increase the energy production of the panels by up to 20 percent and their overall efficiency.
Despite this competition, SolarEdge’s new funding is expected to help it maintain its position as the leader in PC power optimizing. In the past year the company has expanded its product portfolio, established mass production lines and global delivery infrastructure, partnered with leading PV module manufacturers, integrators and distributors worldwide, and generated significant sales growth.
To date SolarEdge has raised over $82 million in funding, including raising $23 million from GE and other investors last fall. In June SolarEdge announced partnerships to distribute its technology across Australia and Europe and was named a Red Herring 100 Winner.
Other Israeli solar companies that have been unhindered by the VC funding slowdown are BrightSource Energy and Ormat Technologies. BrightSource Energy recently raised $30 million that will help it with the construction of the world’s largest solar power plant in California’s Mojave Desert and was praised by President Obama in his weekly address this past week for the thousand jobs it is expected to create.
More articles on SolarEdge from Green Prophet:
SolarEdge and Flextronics Create Solar Energy Products – and Jobs
SolarEdge Disrupts Solar Tech
TaKaDu and SolarEdge Among Red Herring 100 Winners
SolarEdge Plans Holistic Approach to Solar Energy Efficiency
Author: Lisa Damast
Lisa Damast is an online marketing consultant by day and blogger of Israel technology by night. Her blog, Israel Innovation 2.0, provides news and analysis of Israeli technology companies in the enterprise software, Web 2.0 and cleantech sectors. Lisa is also a co-organizer of the Jerusalem Business Networking Forum (JBNF). JBNF helps facilitate online and offline networking among business professionals in Jerusalem, including in the cleantech industry. Lisa made aliyah in August 2007 after receiving a degree in Communication Studies from Boston University in May 2007. Lisa can be reached at lisa (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
