SolarCity today announced that it is taking a $21.5 million round of funding led by Mayfield Fund, and the company’s previous investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, DBL Investors and Generation Capital. The company’s prior funding totaled approximately $134 million, and included investors First Solar, JP Morgan and Elon Musk.
SolarCity helps businesses, home owners and government agencies adopt solar power and save money using clean energy versus electricity generated from non-renewables. It designs, installs and provides finance options for the development of solar projects. In 2008, it provided and installed the thousands of solar panels that grace the roof of eBay Inc.’s green building (pictured) in San Jose.
Earlier this week, SolarCity signed a new partnership deal with Rabobank, the international private bank with a triple A credit rating. The bank has agreed to provide solar project financing for its commercial clients via SolarCity. Rabobank N.A. in California also installed solar power generating rooftops at six of its retail locations.
The shiny new Rabobank-SolarCity rooftops provide power not just for the banks themselves, but for customers of another Elon Musk concern — Tesla Motors. AutoBlogGreen gushes that any of Tesla’s electric vehicles making a pit stop along California’s “clean corridor,” or Highway 101 Rabobank locations can get recharged renewably.
SolarCity plans to use its latest round of venture funding to expand into new geographic markets, and entertain acquisitions. Its solar projects, so far, are in five states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Oregon and Texas.
In California and Arizona, SolarCity faces direct competition from SunRun, another venture-backed firm with investments totaling about $140 million, with its most recent round led by Sequoia Capital.
