Palmetto lands $29 million for residential solar software and home energy spend – pv magazine USA

August 4, 2020Eric Wesoff

Palmetto, a Charleston, S.C.-based software company focused on home energy spend, landed $29 million in Series B funding from investors including Evergy Ventures, Arctern Ventures, Shell Ventures, Greycroft, Lerer Hippeau, Box Group, Falkon Ventures and the Leto Family Office. Greycroft led Palmetto’s Series A round in 2018.

Palmetto is a software and fulfillment platform focused on helping consumers understand their energy finances. The startup pairs homeowners with solar power and energy storage providers and looks to improve the ease of financing and installation.

The company was founded in London in 2009 and has generated a significant amount of revenue over the years as it entered businesses including infrastructure projects in India, Asia and Africa as well as residential solar installation and software. In 2017, Palmetto “divested non-core assets” to focus on software and logistics. Last year, Energy Impact Partners provided $20 million in finance facilities to the company. Former NBA Commissioner David Stern invested in the company in 2018.

Robert Linck, chief investment officer at Shell Ventures said, “Palmetto’s platform strategy and plans for additional products and services such as EV charging, bill management and energy retail are exciting and will allow them to offer consumers truly integrated renewable energy solutions.”

As pv magazine recently reported, Covid was even not on the horizon at the end of 2019, when Chris Kemper, founder and CEO of Palmetto, started preparing his company for the 2020 recession he saw coming. But, by minimizing financial risk with strong credit lines, he said, once the pandemic hit, his team was able to stay focused on growing the business.

“We saw all our metrics spike, and didn’t miss a beat,” Kemper said.