Solarcycle raises $30M

Solarcycle, an Oakland, California-based recycling company focused on producing sustainable materials for the solar industry, says it has raised $30 million in Series A funding for a total of $37 million in funding since its founding a year ago.

The funds consist of company equity and infrastructure financing and will be used to scale Solarcycle’s solar panel recycling capacity and materials remanufacturing capabilities. The funding round was led by New York-based Fifth Wall, the largest asset manager of technology for the real estate industry, and Indianapolis-based HG Ventures, the corporate venture arm of The Heritage Group. The round also included Prologis Ventures of San Francisco and existing investors Urban Innovation Fund, also of San Francisco, and Closed Loop Partners, New York City. Solarcycle received an initial $6.6 million seed investment in May 2022.

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Experts in panel manufacturing, advanced recycling and climate technology founded Solarcycle in 2022 to create a more sustainable domestic supply chain for the solar industry.

Solar adoption is expected to accelerate over this decade, according to the company, increasing from 150 gigawatts peak, or GWp, per year in 2021 to 650 GWp per year in 2030. To meet the increasing demand for new solar panel production, Solarcycle has developed proprietary technology that it says can cost-effectively return more than 95 percent of the valuable materials, such as aluminum, glass, copper, silver and silicon, back into the solar value chain to help create a sustainable and scalable solar industry.

The infrastructure financing, led by Fifth Wall Infrastructure and partner Alok Sindher, provides asset-level equity capital for Solarcycle's Odessa, Texas, factory. Fifth Wall's complementary venture and infrastructure investments address a critical gap in investment for hardware-intensive businesses.

“Fifth Wall looked far and wide, and we believe Solarcycle is the only company within North America aiming to do true, end-to-end solar panel recycling, says Peter Gajdoš, partner and co-head of The Climate Tech Investment Team at Fifth Wall. “Their deep solar industry partnerships and ability to extract valuable materials at reasonable cost, with efficient logistics, is what differentiates the company's position. The rapid adoption of customers speaks to the quality of the solution and the growing market demand as solar panel portfolio ages. We are confident in management's ability to help lead the solar industry into the next chapter and make solar energy even more sustainable.”

Suvi Sharma, CEO and co-founder of Solarcycle, says, “I spent nearly 20 years in the solar industry, helping grow two large solar companies from scratch. When I co-founded Solarcycle in 2022, I knew the moment was right to build an industry-backed advanced technology solution to recycling solar panels that ensures that valuable materials go back into the domestic supply chain.”

He adds, “This Series A funding will allow us to further advance our patented technology, grow partnerships with industry leaders and rapidly build recycling infrastructure in the United States and beyond to mine old solar panels for making new solar panels.” 

Solarcycle works with residential, commercial and industrial and utility companies to recycle solar panels. The company says it is on track to install capacity to recycle 1 million solar panels per year by the end of 2023 and plans to open a vertically integrated, advanced recycling factory capable of processing millions of panels annually in 2024.

“Solarcycle provides customers with the first scalable model for solar panel recycling, which aligns perfectly with HG Ventures’ mission to partner with innovative, high-growth companies that support a sustainable future,” says Kip Frey, managing director of HG Ventures. “We are delighted to support Solarcycle’s world-class team developing a business model that is both an economic opportunity and an environmental necessity.”

“As the No. 2 generator of on-site solar in the U.S., we see a strong and urgent need for an advanced circular solar supply chain solution, which Solarcycle delivers,” says Will O’Donnell, managing director of Prologis Ventures. “We like that they are making solar energy even more sustainable, given their ability to extract 95 percent of the material from a panel and return them to the supply chain to make new solar panels.”

In the last year, Solarcycle opened its first solar recycling facility in Odessa, inked customer partnerships with major U.S. solar companies, including Sunrun, Silicon Ranch, DEPCOM Power, SOLV Energy, NovaSource, Greentech Renewables, and Forum Energy Partners, and assembled a management team with experience scaling companies such as Amazon, SunPower, and Nextracker.