Switzerland-based startup Insolight has today announced closing an approx. €4.6 million Series A round. The round was led again by Investiere, with co-investors Zürcher Kantonalbank, Swiss Immo Lab and a number of private business angels.
Founded in 2015, Insolight is a Swiss tech company based at the EPFL Innovation Park in Lausanne, developing next-generation solar PV panels for the global market. The technology is based on a patented optical technology, which was validated at 29% efficiency in a standard flat module.
So far, the company has established strong partnerships with major industrial players as well as world-class research centres, and is supported by private investors. Insolight is also already supported by several programmes from the European Commission (H2020, Solar-ERA.Net, Eurostars, Climate KIC ), national programmes (Innosuisse, Innovaud, SPEI, FIT, VentureKick, CleanTech Alps), and the European Space Agency (ESA BIC) and EPFL (Innogrant), showing the growing interest in the sustainable energy technology they are producing.
Insolight aims to further improve the return-on-investment of PV installations, ultimately decreasing solar electricity costs. Following their first seed round in January 2018, the startup established a world record efficiency for flat solar panels, as certified by IES-UPM. The company has successfully taken the technology out of the lab and proved its robustness in real weather conditions.
This Series A financing round, together with the €10 million HIPERION grant from the EU, will enable Insolight to start producing and selling the modules to the market. The production will be outsourced to external manufacturers.