SunRun, a company that sells solar electricity as a service to residential customers, has raised $12 million in financing, led by Foundation Capital.
SunRun Solar Service offers rooftop solar electricity as a home service. Instead of making a large capital investment in solar panels and shouldering the burdens of system maintenance, the homeowner is billed only for the solar electricity used.
Since SunRun owns and maintains the solar electricity system, as well as guarantees its output, the homeowner can buy solar electricity from SunRun just like traditional electricity from a utility, but at a low rate that never increases, the company said.
"SunRun launched last year with a simple goal: to minimize homeowners’ power bills with hassle-free solar electricity," said Nat Kreamer, President, Co-Founder and COO of SunRun. "The investment from Foundation will accelerate our ability to deliver SunRun Solar Service to our rapidly growing market."
With SunRun homeowners pay an initial fee, and secure a rate for solar electricity, which the company says is lower than what utilities charge. In order to guarantee savings, SunRun monitors and maintains the solar electricity system installed for the customer, making any repairs and replacing worn parts at no additional cost.
"SunRun is a leader in the rapidly growing residential solar market," said Parker Weil, head of Clean Energy Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch. "Their full-service business model brings a cost-effective product to an underserved market. Additionally, in a strained power grid environment, there are attractive economics to SunRun’s easily scalable distributed energy platform."
About SunRun
SunRun says it is the nation’s first residential solar electricity provider. Pioneering "solar as a service," SunRun includes installation of a rooftop system plus free maintenance and monitoring. SunRun is based in San Francisco, CA.