Mercom Capital Group LLC reports global corporate funding in the solar sector – including venture capital (VC), private equity (PE), debt financing and public market financing raised by public companies – jumped to $9.8 billion in the third quarter of this year (Q3'14), compared to $6.3 billion in the previous quarter (Q2'14).
Global VC and PE funding in Q3'14 totaled $326 million in 21 deals, down from $452 million in 22 deals in Q2'14. Like the previous quarter, solar downstream companies attracted most of the VC funding in Q3, with $205 million in 11 deals.
The largest deal in Q3'14 was the $110 million raised by Sunnova Energy, a provider of residential solar service to homeowners through its network of local installation partners offering leases and power purchase agreements. Glasspoint Solar, a provider of concentrating solar power steam generators to the oil and gas industry, raised $53 million.
Public market financing in Q3'14 totaled $987 million compared to $1.3 billion in Q2'13. This quarter witnessed the $577 million initial public offering of TerraForm Power, a yieldco subsidiary of SunEdison.
‘Financing activity was strong all around this quarter whether you look at VC, debt or public markets, and it was the best fundraising quarter since Q1 2011,’ says Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital. ‘VC funding in solar has now crossed $1 billion in the first three quarters this year.’
To learn more about the report, click here.
