Lithuania’s PVcase targets ‘data risk’ in solar industry; bags $100M

PVcase, a Lithuania-based solar project design software leader, announced on Monday, July 17, that it had secured $100M (€88.83M) in a fresh round of funding.

The funding round was led by Highland Europe and Energize Ventures, along with participation from existing investor Elephant. 

The company says that the investment strengthens its position to address the critical demand for disruptive technological solutions in the thriving solar market.

PVcase says it is dedicated to accelerating solar project design, enhancing efficiency and precision. But it also aims to address the industry’s escalating concern of “data risk.” 

This risk emerges from various factors, including the scarcity of qualified designers and engineers due to the rapid global growth of utility-scale solar. 

“Data risk is a technical problem that has become an industry-wide constraint,” says David Trainavicius, CEO of PVcase. “We plan to use this investment to drive more cost and time savings by offering a one-stop solar design platform.”

“We need to advance solar operations fully into the digital age by reducing data risk. We’re making this investment so PVcase can lead the industry to a solution,” says Irena Goldenberg, Partner at Highland Europe.

Growing demand for solution

Despite substantial investments in the solar market, the solar engineering industry is facing a critical lack of digitisation required to match the rapidly growing demand. Data sources, especially in Europe, are predominantly in older formats like PDFs and hard copy records, resulting in compatibility issues. 

Developers are increasingly relying on software automation for design and ongoing operations. Yet, most existing solar software platforms were designed independently, meaning that they are mostly capable of automating only a limited set of tasks. 

“The utility-scale solar industry is poised for explosive global growth in the coming years, yet it currently lacks the digital tools needed to meet the demand of the market,” says John Tough, managing partner of Energize Ventures and now a member of the PVcase board of directors. 

“After getting to know the PVcase team, product and customers over the last two years, Energize is confident that PVcase is the software the industry needs to unlock its growth potential,” adds Tough.

PVcase aims to transform the solar engineering sector by offering an all-encompassing, interconnected solution to meet the growing challenges in solar project design and execution. 

Acquisitions and expansion 

The current round of investment comes after PVcase’s acquisition of solar siting leader Anderson Optimization. The merger offers numerous advantages, including ensuring developers focus only on viable sites. The two platforms’ data fields have been seamlessly matched, facilitating easy data transfer.

PVcase also introduced Anderson Optimization software to the European market, starting with Germany, Spain, and the UK, allowing developers to reduce their project design process from weeks to approximately 20 minutes.

The company has also expanded into 75 countries and accumulated significant cash reserves, primarily relying on its revenue stream. The company aims to build the leading end-to-end solution for utility-scale solar design and construction. 

With no set standards for solar data collection, PVcase’s momentum and capabilities have garnered investor confidence in addressing this challenge.

“The company is growing rapidly and capital efficiently, and we are excited to continue to back the team,” says Peter Fallon, General Partner at Elephant.