With investors loving solar again on the public markets, the only major US solar installer that’s still private will soon launch an IPO – and that’s Sunrun.
According to its SEC filing, it plans to raise at least $100 million under the ticker, RUN.
Like SolarCity and Vivint, Sunrun installs solar at no upfront cost and instead, collects fixed monthly fees via long term contracts. Unlike its competitors, Sunrun is dedicated to residential installations and has 75,000 customers in 13 states.
Founded in 2007, Sunrun reported revenue of $198.6 million for 2014, almost quadruple that of the previous year ($54.7 million). Soaring expenses, however, still produced a net loss of $167.5 million, up from $66 million in 2013, according to the SEC filing.
Since it only has about $105 million in cash on hand, Sunrun needs to go public this year or find other sources of financing. It has raised $265 million in venture capital over the years.
We’re surprised to see that while SolarCity has many more customers (218,000), Sunrun is ahead on revenue. Sunrun’s total installations come to 430 megawatts, compared to SolarCity’s 500 MW in 2014 alone, estimated to reach 1 gigawatt for this year, as it moves forward on its new microgrid-as-a-service.
Revenue 2014
Sunrun: $198 million
SolarCity: $163 million
Vivint Solar: $25 million
Net Income 2014
Sunrun: -$167.5 million
SolarCity: -$55.8 million
Vivint Solar: -$28.88 million