US-based home solar system installer Sungevity has raised $50m in equity funding from investors including GE Ventures, industrial product maker General Electric’s corporate venturing unit.
Investment firm Apollo Investment Corporation and specialty finance provider Hercules Technology Growth Capital also contributed to the equity funding, which will be used to strengthen Sungevity’s technology platform and help the company expand into new markets.
Sungevity provides solar power systems to homeowners across 12 US states, as well as the District of Columbia and the Netherlands, Germany and the UK.
The equity funding was secured alongside $600m of project finance supplied by a consortium led by Apollo, and together the investments represent the largest financing of a private solar power company this year. It will support the deployment of 400 MW of solar systems in the US over the next three years.
Andrew Birch, chief executive of Sungevity, said: “This record investment is a testimony to the disruptive business model we’ve built in the solar market, an industry that itself is disrupting the energy landscape.
“The funding allows us to extend our technology platform, enabling more partners to bring Sungevity Energy Systems to more customers in more places.”
Sungevity secured $70m in equity funding from GE Ventures, Germany-based energy utility E.ON and Jetstream Ventures in April 2014 and has now raised $210m altogether.
Existing investors also include Lowe’s, the home improvement retail chain that is also an installation partner of Sungevity, Greener Capital, Brightpath Capital Partners, Craton Equity Partners, Vision Ridge Partners, Eastern Sun Capital Partners and solar module producer Solon, the last of which took part in Sungevity’s $2.5m series A round in 2007.