Sun Exchange raises $1.6 million

U.S.-based peer-to-peer solar equipment leasing marketplace Sun Exchange announced it has raised around $1.6 million in financing from a group of investors comprising Network Society Ventures (New York City), Kalon Venture Partners (Johannesburg, South Africa) and three of the world's leading technology accelerators, BoostVC (San Francisco Bay Area), Techstars (Boulder, Colorado) and Powerhouse (Oakland, California).

The company said the funds will be used to meet the demand for “its pipeline of commercial-scale solar power projects, located in the sunniest regions of the planet”, without providing further details.

The company, which is mainly active in the African energy market and has now expanded with headquarters in the U.S. in California, and a regional operating office in Dubai, which gives retail customers around the world the opportunity to lease solar cells bought on their own platform to medium to larger scale solar installation in developing countries. “Solar panels are sold by the single solar cell, reducing the cost of solar plant ownership to below $10,” the company said in its press release.

To reduce the costs of cross border transaction and to increase transparency, Sun Exchange leverages blockchain and bitcoin. The company claims that by presenting simple and accessible opportunity for anyone to join the solar economy, it can unlock the potential for the construction of environmentally sound and socially responsible projects that would otherwise not exist.