Funding and M&A Roundup: Solar Leasing Firm Enpal Raises $322 Million

Distributed renewable energy solutions company ZOLA Electric raises $90 million

September 27, 2021

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From: Mercom Capital Group

Enpal, a German-based solar PV and battery leasing solutions company, secured senior debt commitments of €275 million (~$322 million) from BlackRock, Pricoa Private Capital, and UniCredit. In addition, institutional commitments of €70 million (~$82 million) were signed in the form of a subordinated mezzanine loan. The senior and junior facilities will jointly refinance more than 15,000 new solar plants and energy storage systems.

ZOLA Electric, a provider of distributed renewable energy solutions that deliver power for homes and businesses, raised $90 million in funding in a combination of debt and equity of $45 million each. The equity investment was led by TotalEnergies Ventures, DBL Partners, Helios Investment Partners, Vulcan Capital, Lyndon, and Pete Rive (founders of Tesla-owned SolarCity), and Electron Capital Partners. FMO and SunFunder led the debt financing.

6K, a company focused on producing sustainable advanced materials for energy storage and additive manufacturing powders, raised $51 million in Series C funding. Volta Energy Technologies led the financing round with Catalus Capital, S Cap/Prithvi Ventures, Anzu Partners, Launch Capital, Material Impact, and RKS Ventures. The company intends to use the funds to complete its Battery Development Center of Excellence, adding 33,000 sq ft of product development space and doubling its 6K Energy team.

Omnidian, a residential, commercial, and industrial solar system performance plans and performance guarantees provider raised $33 million in a Series B funding round. Activate Capital led the round with Liberty Mutual Insurance and WIND Ventures, the strategic venture capital arm of Chilean multinational energy firm Copec. Existing investors City Light Capital, IA Capital, Evergy Ventures, Avista Development, Congruent Ventures, Centrica, National Grid Partners, Energy Foundry, and Blue Bear Capital also participated in the funding round.

SunShare, a community solar developer, secured a $30 million equity commitment from Ember Infrastructure, a private equity firm. Industry veteran and Ember partner Bob Kelly joined SunShare’s board of directors in connection with the investment. Community solar programs are a fast-growing segment in renewables. National Renewable Energy Laboratory data shows that 75% of U.S. homes are unsuitable for rooftop solar panel installation. Nearly 40% of U.S. households are renters who cannot choose to install a rooftop solar option.

Sunrun, a home solar, battery storage, and energy services company, announced it had priced a securitization of leases and power purchase agreements, known as Sunrun’s solar-as-a-service offering. While the transaction was structured with both A- (Class A) and BB- (Class B) rated notes, only the Class A notes were sold to investors. The Class A notes have an initial balance of $447.1 million and were priced at a yield of 2.28%, representing a spread to the benchmark swap rate of 120 bps.

Battery Resourcers, a vertically integrated lithium-ion battery recycling, and the manufacturing company closed a funding round totaling $70 million. Existing investors who also took part in the funding round include Orbia Ventures, Jaguar Land Rover’s InMotion Ventures, Doral Energy, At One Ventures, TDK Ventures, and Trumpf Ventures.

Premier Energies, a solar PV cell and module manufacturing company, raised an equity investment of ₹2 billion (~$27 million) led by GEF Capital Partners, a private equity manager focused on investing in climate solutions.  Premier Energies plans to use the funds as growth capital to enhance its solar PV cell and module manufacturing capacity. Centrum Capital Limited was the exclusive advisor to Premier Energies on this transaction.

Catalyze, a C&I-focused independent power producer, acquired Sol Alliance, a solar project developer. In addition to bringing a deal pipeline exceeding 80 MW of projects in development, the acquisition provides Catalyze with greater origination resources and deeper solar development capabilities in key markets, especially New York and New Jersey.

American Securities, a private equity firm, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Swinerton Builders renewable energy division – Swinerton Renewable Energy (SRE), and wholly-owned subsidiary SOLV, from Swinerton Inc. Financial terms of the transaction, were not disclosed.

GreenPowerMonitor (GPM), a monitoring solutions provider for renewable power projects, acquired  PV analytics technology platform PEAK from Alteso, a PV performance improvement specialist located in Vienna, Austria.

AM Batteries (AMB), an additive manufacturing company focusing on the lithium-ion dry-electrode market, raised a $3 million seed round co-led by TDK Corporation’s venture arm TDK Ventures and Foothill Ventures. SAIC Capital (Tier I manufacturer), VinFast (Vietnamese EV OEM), Doral Energy-Tech Ventures (Israel Renewable Energy Company), Creative Ventures (financial VC firm from Silicon Valley) also participated in the round.

For reports and trackers on funding and M&A transactions in solar, energy storage, smart grid, and efficiency sectors, click here.

Read last week’s funding roundup.

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