GE invests in SolarEdge, joining $23m Series B funding round

SolarEdge, a Herzliya, Israel-based start-up developing technology that increases solar power systems’ output by up to 25 percent, announced today that GE unit GE Energy Financial Services has joined a $23 million funding round to support growth in residential and large-scale photovoltaic sites.

SolarEdge’s other investors are US venture capital funds Opus Capital and Walden International, Israeli venture capital funds Genesis Partners and Vertex Venture Capital, and the Singaporean fund JP Capital Asia. Details of each investor’s contribution to the equity financing were not disclosed.

GE Energy Financial Services’ venture capital team has invested in 20 early- and growth-stage energy- and water-related technology companies since January 2006, but this was their first cleantech-related investment in Israel.



“We will use this financing to further promote our solar power harvesting system, which can be embedded in practically all types of solar photovoltaic panels to maximize power generation while dramatically reducing costs,” said Guy Sella, Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of SolarEdge. “By partnering with GE, we benefit from the company’s proven R&D capabilities, energy technology expertise and deep commercial market reach.”

SolarEdge provides holistic photovoltaic power harvesting and monitoring technology to maximize the energy output and cost efficiency of solar PV units. The company is partnering with industry leaders such as BP Solar and Schott Solar, Isofoton, HaWi Energitechnik, Gehrlicher solar and many others to embed its technology into photovoltaic panels to increase their power output by up to 25 percent and provide monitoring and control services.

“Our investment in SolarEdge reflects our confidence in the company’s ability to thrive in the growing global solar industry,” Alex Urquhart, President and CEO of GE Energy Financial Services, said at the GE venture capital media forum. “SolarEdge is a smart company, with smart technology that fits well with GE’ ecomagination program to help customers meet their environmental challenges. We view this investment as the beginning of a broader collaboration between GE and SolarEdge that could include joint product development and distribution.”

SolarEdge CEO Guy Sella and VP product development Lior Handlesman founded the company in 2006, together with Amir Fishelov, Meir Adest, and Yoav Galin.

The company's roots can be traced to the founding team members' service together in the Israel Defense Forces. Sella commanded the Technology Unit of the IDF's Department of Military Intelligence in 2001-2002 and Fishelov and Handlesman served in management roles in the IDF for close to a decade prior to joining SolarEdge. Meir Adest is a graduate of the prestigious Talpiot program and recipient of the Israel Defense Award (2004) and the Director of Intelligence Innovation Award (2001).

SolarEdge has raised $35 million to date.

Gunther Portfolio recently published a detailed look at SolarEdge and an interiew with CEO Guy Sella.

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Solaredge partners with BP Solar to test solar efficiency products

SolarEdge is joining forces with BP Solar to test new products designed to help solar modules operate more efficiently in harvesting the sun's rays, the companies said today in a press release.

BP Solar, a unit of oil giant BP Plc, will integrate into its solar modules SolarEdge's electronics that are designed to reduce the losses in solar arrays. Those losses can cut their power output by as much as 20 percent.

In support of this activity, BP Solar and SolarEdge have been awarded a research grant by the Israeli and US governments as part of the BIRD Foundation (Bi-national Industrial Research and Development), which contributes to joint development.

Solar panels typically turn between 10 to 15 percent of the sun's light into electricity, but that output can be reduced by partial shading of the arrays and other glitches in the electronic equipment that transports power between the panels.

SolarEdge, based in Herzliya, Israel, produces equipment that can help eliminate inefficiencies in the solar module arrays.

The company's products also make the solar systems safer, according to Chief Executive Officer Guy Sella, and can be used to provide data to customers on cells or modules that are damaged and not producing power at their capacity.

SolarEdge currently has three products, including a chipset called the PowerBox that manufacturers can embed into their solar modules to boost power output, but can also be added on as a retrofit. There’s also an inverter and web-based monitoring software for identifying maintenance needs and energy loss, and preventing theft.

In an interview with Earth2Tech, Sella said SolarEdge is on track to reach “general availability” between late July and September of this year. The company is in the final stages of negotiations with two manufacturers and expects to complete those by the end of June. By July, SolarEdge plans to establish a subsidiary in Germany, and by September or October Sella expects to have a presence in the U.S., on the West Coast.

According to a report in Reuters, SolarEdge expects to have orders for equipment that generate more than 12 megawatts of electricity by the end of 2009, and as much as 80 MW in 2010. The company expects to be cash-flow positive in the fourth quarter of 2010, and could launch an initial public offering of shares in the second half of 2011, Sella said.

In December 2008, SolarEdge completed a $23 million Series B financing round. Vertex Venture Capital led the round and was joined by the company's existing investors, Genesis Partners, Walden International, and Opus Capital.

Sella told Earth2Tech that for the last three to four months SolarEdge has been in talks with an investor who may add $3 million to $5 million to the Series B round. He said they would be a “very big strategic partner” if the deal comes through.

SolarEdge has raised nearly $35 million in venture capital funding since its inception in 2006.

Earlier this week, SolarEdge announced the appointment of Zvi Lando as its VP of Global Sales.

Lando joins SolarEdge from Applied Materials where he served as vice president, general manager of the Baccini Cell Systems (BCS) Solar Business Group, the global leader in screen printing equipment for the solar industry.

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B-Solar, solar cell start-up, raises $3m from Genesis Partners

B-Solar Ltd., a solar cell start-up based in Israel, has raised $3 million from Genesis Partners in a first round of fund-raising. B-Solar also raised an undisclosed sum from angel investor and serial entrepreneur Gidi Barak, founder of IXI Mobile and DSP Communications (aquired by Intel in 2000), according to reports in Globes and The Marker (Hebrew) and a press release from Genesis.

B-Solar, founded in December 2007, is in stealth mode and does not have a web site, and little information about the company is publicly available. The company plans on establishing a manufacturing facility in 2010 to produce its photovoltaic cells, initially at a production capacity of 70 megawatts per year.

B-Solar's co-founder and CEO is Yossi Kofman. According to Kofman's bio, B-Solar "develops and manufactures photovoltaic (PV) bifacial, silicon solar cells that can provide 15-20% more energy per dollar production than the best of breed counterparts."

In the press release, Kofman states: “B-Solar will become a leading manufacturer of photovoltaic cells, producing hundreds of megawatts per year, while maintaining our technological leadership and competitive advantage". He adds, “B-Solar is in contact with a number of international photovoltaic panel manufacturers who have expressed interest in the product".

Yossi Kofman, who holds a D.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, was previously the co-founder and CEO of Modem-Art, a fabless semiconductor company acquired by Agere Systems (now LSI Logic) for $145 million in 2005. Modem-Art's investors included Genesis Partners, which is now backing Kofman at B-Solar.

B-Solar's other founders are Professor Naftali Eisenberg (CTO), Dr. Lev Kreinin (Chief Scientist), and Dr. Ninel Bordin (Scientist) of the Jerusalem College of Technology (JCT). Professor Eisenberg founded and led the photovoltaic solar energy center and the non-conventional optics laboratory at (JCT), and, together with his colleagues, Dr. Kreinin and Dr. Bordin, turned the center into a leading university laboratory in the field of silicon based solar cells.

In 2007, Eisenberg authored an article on "Dialectic microconcentrators for efficiency enhancement in concentrator solar cells." In 2008, Eisenberg, Kreinin and Bordin co-authored an article on "A novel method for determining bulk diffusion length in bifacialsilicon solar cells."

Avishai Drori, a graduate of the Jerusalem College of Technology, and a veteran of Israel's high-tech industry, is B-Solar's Director of Product Management.

Following the $3 million investment, Genesis Partners' team members Dr. Eyal Kishon and Gary Gannot will reportedly join B-Solar's board of directors.

Gary Gannot, General Partner at Genesis Partners, stated, “We believe this is a unique investment in a high-potential company that will both spearhead research and development in the field and become a leading PV manufacturer. The global PV industry is poised for continued dramatic growth in demand, and we believe that B-Solar’s innovative technology and products will help realize the potential of this large and emerging market".

Genesis Partners is also backing SolarEdge, a stealth solar start-up developing advanced power-harvesting solutions for photovoltaic arrays that will lower the average cost per watt produced. Herzliya, Israel-based SolarEdge raised $23 million in a Series B financing round in 2008.

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BIRD Foundation invests in U.S.-Israel cleantech projects

The Israel-United States Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD Foundation) will invest $9 million in 12 joint projects between Israeli and US companies.

The BIRD Foundation promotes cooperation between Israeli and U.S. companies in various technology areas and assists in identifying strategic partners in both countries, in order to develop and commercialize novel technologies and products.

Four of this year's projects are cleantech-related:

(1) NanoReady Ltd. and Applied Nanotech will jointly develop conductive copper ink. Caesarea, Israel-based NanoReady develops, markets and manufactures nano particles from a wide variety of materials. By more seamlessly and efficiently integrating with and enhancing product manufacturing processes, NanoReady particles enable superior finished products, while also reducing energy consumption and processing time and cost.

(2) Oree Inc. and Intematix Corp. will jointly develop a planar illumination LED module. Oree, based in Ramat Gan, Israel, has received venture capital funding from Genesis Partners and Gimv. In November, Oree announced that it had secured a $4 million venture loan from Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Kreos Capital for manufacturing and the expansion of business development activities.

(3) Power Paper Inc. and GE GRC-Lighting will jointly develop a self-powered organic light-emitting diode (OLED) for lighting. Power Paper develops and markets technology applications that operate with the thin and flexible, environment-friendly micro-power source that the company has developed. In November, Power Paper raised $30 million from Apax Partners, Clal Industries and Investments and the Infinity Venture Capital Fund.

(4) Transiodiesel Ltd. and the NYSE-listed Rohm and Haas will jointly develop an enzymatic process for biodiesel production. Transbiodiesel Ltd. has patented technology on the use of unique immobilized lipases for the production of biodiesel from different oils, including plant oils, animal fats and recycled greases. In October, the AquAgro Fund acquired 23.5% of Transbiodiesel in return for a $1.5 million investment.

The BIRD Foundation said that it had received a record number of requests for funding in 2008. It expects that the trend will continue because of the global economic situation.

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SolarEdge exits stealth mode and plans Series B financing

SolarEdge, a venture-backed developer of power-conversion technologies that combine hardware and software to improve solar-system efficiencies, is beginning to reveal details about its business plan.

In an exclusive interview with Greentech Media, Lior Handelsman, VP and Co-Founder of the Herzliya, Israel-based startup, says that SolarEdge is engaged in sales agreements, testing agreements, joint development agreements and has booked significant initial orders for its products from major module manufacturers and system integrators.

According to Handelsman, SolarEdge has a number of term sheets and will be closing on a $20 to $25 million Series B round of venture capital financing in the coming days or weeks.

The company is attempting to solve problems related to partial shading of solar panels, which can result in dramatic reductions in solar panel output. SolarEdge claims that the performance of a photovoltaic (PV) solar system can be improved by 15 percent to 20 percent by using the company’s chips and inverters

SolarEdge was founded in 2006 by Handelsman and Amir Fishelov. Handelsman and Fishelov founded the company after leaving the IDF, where both served in management positions. The company's CEO is Guy Sella, who was most recently a partner at Star Ventures and commanded the Technology Unit of the IDF's Department of Military Intelligence in 2001-2002.

SolarEdge raised $11.8 million in a 2007 Series A financing led by Genesis Partners, Walden International and Opus Capital.

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Cleantech Israel group featured in Globes

The Cleantech Israel meetup group was recently featured in "Globes", and I am re-posting the article below. Highlights and a photo from the group's first event are also available on this blog.

Cleantech Israel enables people (including entrepreneurs, investors, academic researchers and government officials) to meet and exchange ideas about the renewable energy, water, and environmental sectors.

The group's next event, on April 29, will include a presentation by Alon Tamari, Co-CEO of SolarPower Ltd., followed by time for networking. You can join the group and RSVP for the next event at our web page.

"Globes": Cleantech industry networks in Israel

About 50 representatives from various parts of Israel's cleantech industry recently met in Herzliya Pituach to launch a networking initiative. They included venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, Ronit Golovaty from the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute and even Jaclyn Marcus from the California Public Utilities Commission. The meet-up was organized by Jonathan Shapira, from Boston, and Gene Dolgin from Tel Aviv. The Cleantech Israel group currently has 134 members.

Jonathan Shapira is a law student from Boston who is currently serving an internship with Israel Cleantech Ventures, where Gene Dolgin is an analyst. The US law firm of Goodwin Procter LLP, which has an extensive Clean Technology Practice, sponsored the meet-up. Shapira says that he will soon be working for the firm.

Shapira and Dolgin, aware that there are similar cleantech networking groups in places like Boston and Silicon Valley, decided to organize the group to enable key players in the industry in Israel - entrepreneurs, investors, academics, and government officials - to meet and exchange ideas. Shapira notes that while Israel has many strengths when it comes to cleantech, the lack of government support, especially when compared to what is happening in other countries, may hold the industry back. He hopes that members of the Cleantech Israel group, together with other organizations such as Waterfronts - Israel Water Alliance, and the newly created Israel Energy Forum, might be able to persuade the government to implement better policies related to renewable energy, clean water, and the environment.

Shapira told "Globes", "Gene and I decided to organize the network together, and we received a strong response, especially from entrepreneurs and investors. Other parties quickly joined, including academics and a few government officials.

The participants at the Cleantech Israel meet-up included former Gemini Israel Funds partner Tali Aben; Genesis Partners principle Gil Dibner; Terra Venture Partners LP general partner Dr. Harold Weiner; and Israel Cleantech managing partner Jack Levy. Levy noted, "Although Israel entered cleantech late, great things have emerged here within only three years, on both the entrepreneurs and the funds side."

Participating entrepreneurs included low-cost regenerative fuel-cell developer Enstorage Ltd. CEO Eran Yarkoni, wastewater treatment solutions developer AqWise Ltd. VP business development Udi Leshem; Emefcy Bioenergy Systems CEO Eytan Levy, who previously co-founded AqWise; Phoebus Energy Ltd. CEO Yoav Ben-Yaacov; Ashkelon Technological Industries (ATI) cleantech director Rafi Nevo; and Noam Ilan, who is the project manager of the alternative energy park under construction at the Eilot Regional Council in the southern Negev.

SolarEdge raises $11.8 million

VentureWire and Greentech Media report that SolarEdge Technologies raised $11.8 million in its first round of venture-capital funding. Still in stealth mode, SolarEdge is developing power-conversion technologies that combine hardware and software to improve solar-system efficiencies.

Based in Herzliya, SolarEdge was founded in 2006 by Lior Handelsman and Amir Fishelov. Handelsman and Fishelov apparently founded SolarEdge after leaving the IDF, where both served in management positions. The company's CEO is Guy Sella, who was most recently a partner at Star Ventures and commanded the Technology Unit of the IDF's Department of Military Intelligence in 2001-2002.

SolarEdge is backed by Genesis Partners, which classifies it as a "semiconductors" company that provides "energy harvesting solutions for solar photovoltaic systems." Other investors in this round were Walden International and Opus Capital, a new venture capital fund based in Silicon Valley with a focus on Israel-related companies.

GE invests in SolarEdge, joining $23m Series B funding round

Solaredge partners with BP Solar to test solar efficiency products

SolarEdge raises $23m in venture capital

SolarEdge exits stealth mode and plans Series B financing