GE Shines Brighter Light on SolarEdge, Joins US$23 Million Funding Round

NISKAYUNA, N.Y. & HERZLIYA, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SolarEdge, whose technology increases solar power systems’ output by up to 25 percent, announced today that GE (NYSE: GE) unit GE Energy Financial Services has joined a US$23 million funding round to support growth in residential and large-scale photovoltaic sites. SolarEdge’s other investors are US venture capital leaders Opus Capital and Walden International, the Israeli funds Genesis Partners and Vertex Venture Capital, and the Singaporean fund JP Capital Asia.

The funding—GE Energy Financial Services’ first investment in Israel—was announced at GE Global Research, GE’s research and technology development center in Niskayuna, New York, during a media forum on clean tech venture capital investing.

“We will use this financing to further promote our solar power harvesting system, which can be embedded in practically all types of solar photovoltaic panels to maximize power generation while dramatically reducing costs,” said Guy Sella, Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder of SolarEdge. “By partnering with GE, we benefit from the company’s proven R&D capabilities, energy technology expertise and deep commercial market reach.”

SolarEdge provides holistic photovoltaic power harvesting and monitoring technology to maximize the energy output and cost efficiency of solar PV units. The company works with industry-leading partners such as BP Solar and Schott Solar, Isofoton, HaWi Energitechnik, Gehrlicher solar and many others to embed its technology into photovoltaic panels to increase their power output by up to 25 percent and provide superior monitoring and control, without increasing costs. GE Global Research provided a technical, hands-on perspective to GE Energy Financial Services as it considered this investment.

“Our investment in SolarEdge reflects our confidence in the company’s ability to thrive in the growing global solar industry,” Alex Urquhart, President and CEO of GE Energy Financial Services, said at the GE venture capital media forum. “SolarEdge is a smart company, with smart technology that fits well with GE’s ecomagination program to help customers meet their environmental challenges. We view this investment as the beginning of a broader collaboration between GE and SolarEdge that could include joint product development and distribution.”

Details of each investor’s contribution to the equity financing were not disclosed.

With offices in Boston, Stamford, CT, San Francisco, and Munich, Germany, GE Energy Financial Services’ venture capital team has invested in 20 early- and growth-stage energy- and water-related technology companies since January 2006, making it one of the most active energy technology venture capital investors globally.

About SolarEdge Technologies

SolarEdge is a provider of smart, holistic PV power harvesting and monitoring solutions for maximum energy at a lower cost per watt. The company works with industry-leading partners to embed its active electronic solution directly into PV panels. Unlike centralized architectures that cannot optimize the power of each panel, only SolarEdge performs MPPT per panel while communicating across existing power lines for granular visibility and control. As a result, the SolarEdge systemic approach provides more power from any given installation, eliminates design constraints, provides complete visibility, solves all safety issues and provides anti-theft, all while reducing the cost of energy. SolarEdge is online at www.solaredge.com.

About GE Energy Financial Services

GE Energy Financial Services’ experts invest globally with a long-term view, backed by the best of GE’s technical know-how, financial strength and rigorous risk management, across the capital spectrum, in one of the world’s most capital-intensive industries, energy. GE Energy Financial Services helps its customers and GE grow through new investments, strong partnerships and optimization of its more than US$22 billion in assets. In renewable energy, GE Energy Financial Services is growing its portfolio of more than US$4 billion in assets in wind, solar, biomass, hydro and geothermal power. GE Energy Financial Services is based in Stamford, Connecticut. For more information, visit www.geenergyfinancialservices.com.

About GE

GE (NYSE: GE) is a diversified global infrastructure, finance and media company that is built to meet essential world needs. From energy, water, transportation and health to access to money and information, GE serves customers in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.ge.com. GE is Imagination at Work.