Tech
This startup is taking on Tesla with its integrated solar roof tiles. SunRoof used this 9-slide pitch deck to raise $14.6 million from investors.
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- Solar panel startup SunRoof just raised 13.5 million euros (around $14.6 million) in fresh funds.
- The Swedish company, founded in 2013, is taking on Tesla’s Solar Roof energy system.
- We got an exclusive look at the 9-slide pitch deck SunRoof used to raise the extension round.
A startup taking on Tesla’s Solar Roof has just raised a 13.5 million euros (around $14.6 million) extension round to fuel its growth.
Swedish company SunRoof provides integrated solar roof tiles to offer homeowners as a slick alternative to mounted solar panels, which it claims are also more efficient and environmentally friendly than those of its competitors.
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The cash injection, which brings the growth round to 28.5 million euros (around $30.9 million) and the company’s total investment to 35 million euros (around $37.9 million), was led by Klima Energy Transition and topped up by World Fund, Nordic Alpha Partners, and Legal & General Capital.
Energy is tipped to be a hot market in 2023 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 set gas prices soaring, which in turn led to a push for solar on new buildings in Europe. The US’ Inflation Reduction Act has also added incentives for rooftop solar. Venture-backed solar companies raised $8.35 billion last year – just shy of its record $8.48 billion in 2021, according to PitchBook.
SunRoof uses traditional photovoltaic (PV) materials instead of thin foil, which is typically used by integrated solar roof companies, CEO Leck Kaniuk told Insider. PV is more efficient at harvesting the sun’s power, he said. Its individual tiles are also bigger than competitors, meaning there are fewer “joins” and therefore wasted space.
When compared with traditional mounted solar panels, SunRoof uses fewer materials due to not needing frames. This helps to keep down supply chain emissions and costs, Kaniuk said.
“There’s actually no competitor that we know of that can produce more energy per square meter better than us,” he added. “We are both more efficient than Tesla and we are cheaper than Tesla.”
The company was first founded in 2013 by Kaniuk’s brother Karol, a construction engineer who wanted an aesthetically-pleasing alternative to solar panels and built the technology for his own home. It ticked along as a side hustle for years until he brought his brother Lech on board as CEO in 2019, when the pair started to ramp up operations.
The CEO previously headed up food delivery company PizzaPortal in Poland, which was acquired by Delivery Hero, and Polish ride-hailing app iTaxi.
The brothers are now set on creating “virtual power plants” in every home, setting their customers up with a solar roof as well as an energy storage system and app to manage consumption.
SunRoof is currently piloting a project in Sweden where it acts as a utility provider, buying up surplus power from customers and selling it to others. Kaniuk sees this as an interesting future business model on top the solar roof technology.
The fresh cash will be used to grow the company’s presence in current markets including Germany, the Nordics, Poland, and the US. Kaniuk is betting on SunRoof becoming a market leader by the end of 2023, when he plans to grow the company internationally.
The funding environment slowed across tech in 2022, leading to SunRoof closing the round in two batches. Kaniuk first secured around 15 million euros (around $16.2 million) from Klima Energy Transition but wanted to raise 22 million to fulfil the company’s goals, he said. Announcing the first batch “accelerated” interest and ultimately led to the round being oversubscribed, Kaniuk added.
We got an exclusive look at the 9-slide redacted pitch deck it used to raise the funds.
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