By Simon Jessop and Peter Henderson
LONDON (Reuters) – German climate technology startup Cloover has raised $114 million in debt and equity in a seed funding round led by Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital, Cloover’s co-chief executive told Reuters.
The firm’s technology allows smaller companies, which handle the bulk of renewables installations in Europe, to access all other parts of the value chain, allowing them to track customers, offer financing, and sell multiple products at once.
A regional installer, for example, could use the Cloover system to offer customers solar panels, energy storage, a heat pump and financing all in one package and illustrate the likely effect on their bills, factoring in any green energy credits.
“The mass market customer would like to have a worry-free solution where they just pay less per month than what they paid before and with what we offer now any smaller installer can offer that package,” said Jodok Betschart, co-founder and co-CEO of Cloover.
After initial success in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and the Netherlands, the firm aims to expand into markets including Spain, France and Britain, Betschart said. Other investors in the round include 9900 Capital and QED.
The money raised would help finance more installations, improve the technology, increase the distribution network, and invest in building out the team, Betschart added.
Smaller installers have often not been able to offer finance themselves, meaning their clients have had to rely on loans from traditional banks that may not fully understand the financial benefit of installing renewables, Betschart said.
As well as providing finance from multiple capital sources, Cloover offers funding to a larger group of clients than banks would, in part because it takes into account the savings from cheaper bills in a more granular underwriting process, he said.
(Editing by Mark Potter)
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