US-listed search engine provider Google has committed $280m to a fund to help people lease solar panels for their homes and separately let its corporate venturing unit see prospective employees for portfolio companies.
In partnership with SolarCity, a US-based provider of solar energy system installation and design backed by more than $130m from venture capital firms Mayfield Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DBL Investors and Generation Capital, Google’s fund will extend solar leases and power purchase agreement options to customers.
Benjamin Cook, vice president of project finance at SolarCity, said: "This collaboration with Google will enable us to provide solar power to thousands of homeowners at or below the cost they currently pay for electricity."
It is Google’s largest investment in the clean energy sector having invested $680m in total and is SolarCity’s largest project financing fund and the largest residential solar fund created in the US. SolarCity has 15 project funds with seven different partners to finance $1.3bn in solar projects.
In February, SolarCity bought peer GroSolar’s residential services division from a consortium including Allco Financial Group, a financial services business in liquidation.
Separately, news provider VentureWire said Google Ventures had hired partners for its portfolio companies by gaining access to a database of job seekers who have sent their resumes to Google.
Google receives more than one million job applications in any given year and the firm has hired recruiting partners to begin culling that database and contacting job seekers to see if they’re interested in working at any of the firm’s start-ups, VentureWire said.