Zolar Raises $109 Million to Launch Financing Solution for Solar

Zolar, a digital platform for residential solar in Germany, has reportedly raised €100 million (about $109 million) in funding to launch a new financing solution for residential solar consumers.

The company’s latest investment came from global financial institution BNP Paribas and brought its total funding to nearly €300 million (about $326 million), Tech Funding News reported Monday (April 8).

Zolar was founded in 2016 and provides an online platform on which both homeowners and installers of solar systems can access solar solutions, according to the report.

The company said that the number of inquiries to its platform has quadrupled this year and that it aims to increase installation capacity by expanding its network to 3,000 by 2025, per the report.

Its new financing solution, “zolar Easypay,” allows consumers to secure a solar system with no deposit, determine the installment plan in an online configurator and receive an overview of the expected monthly payment amount, according to the report.

This solution comes in response to the demand for innovative financing that has grown as the residential solar market has matured, Jamie Heywood, CEO at zolar, said in the report.

“A huge thank you to BNP Paribas for supporting zolar customers in making the move to solar,” Heywood said in a Monday post on LinkedIn.

PYMNTS Intelligence has found that embedded finance can benefit businesses by creating revenue opportunities in two ways. In addition to driving direct revenue from the financial products themselves, the heightened engagement and loyalty they impact can increase consumers’ general spend with a given brand, according to “How Nonfinancial Brands Can Benefit from Offering Embedded Financial Services,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and Galileo collaboration.

In an earlier funding round for a German company, artificial intelligence (AI) startup Aleph Alpha said in November 2023 that it raised $500 million in a Series B funding round to research foundation models, enhance product capabilities and expand commercialization efforts. The company has developed its own large language models and aims to compete with OpenAI.

In June 2023, German travel platform GetYourGuide raised $194 million in equity and credit financing to expand into North America and invest in AI innovations.