OpenSolar, an Australian company now based in the US, has raised US$20 million (A$30 million) to grow its use of AI in its renewable energy design and sales platform.
The funding round was supported by OpenSolar’s existing investors, including Titanium Ventures (formerly Telstra’s VC fund), 2150 Sustainability Fund from London and Copenhagen, Google, and others.
Earlier, OpenSolar raised US$15 million (A$22 million) in a Series B round in early 2023, bringing its total funding so far to over US$45 million (A$68 million).
The free software platform is now used by more than 25,000 solar installation businesses across over 160 countries.
It helps connect these businesses to hardware, financing, and other services, which bring in revenue for the climate tech startup.
OpenSolar 3.0, which uses AI to make solar installers’ work faster and easier, was recently launched. The new funding will be used to improve the AI and expand OpenSolar’s services worldwide.
The startup was founded in Sydney in 2017 by Adam Pryor and Andrew “Birchy” Birch. It uses Google’s Solar API data to help installers design accurate solar energy solutions for homes and businesses.
OpenSolar also offers tools for creating sales proposals, managing projects, handling payments, providing finance options, ordering hardware, and managing inventory.
Birch, the CEO, said the next generation of AI tools will take solar growth to the next level, reducing the cost of delivery to help make 50% of energy generated globally by 2035.
“The ability for any contractor to access world-class software and imagery for free, is supporting the rapid transition to low-cost clean energy,” he said.
“OpenSolar technology has facilitated 6,000,000 solar system designs resulting in US$10 billion worth of solar sales, since inception.”
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