Dive Brief:
- On Friday, residential solar company Sungevity announced it had raised $70 million in its latest round of funding.
- Investors in the round included E.ON, one of the world's biggest utilities, Jetstream Ventures and GE Ventures.
- Sungevity, which has raised over $200 million to date, plans to use the latest funding to expand its reach in international markets.
Dive Insight:
Utilities and residential solar companies don't usually get along, but this partnership looks like a good business opportunity for both parties.
With 35 million customers globally, a partnership with Sungevity would enable E.ON to bring rooftop solar to its European customers. The partnership would give Sungevity a good foothold in the European market.
“E.ON is in the business of servicing energy customers across several countries, and as new, more customer-centric solutions around residential solar arise, we want to provide our customers with the best solutions available,” said Susana Quintana-Plaza, E.ON VP of strategic co-investment.
“They did a global search to invest in a solar company and they picked Sungevity,” said Sungevity CEO Andrew Birch.