28 November 2024: Volter, the operating system for commercial and industrial (C&I) rooftop solar, has secured $3.2 million (£2.5 million) in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Transition, with participation from Seedcamp as well as Neptunia, a prominent real estate investor. The capital injection will be used to build out Volter’s product offerings, expand its customer base, and to launch operations in a new European market.
The European solar sector has experienced remarkable growth, with a 40% year-over-year increase in 2022 and 2023, and a predicted tripling of capacity in the coming years. If fully deployed, rooftop solar has the potential to fulfil up to 25% of European electricity demand. However, while solar deployment continues to accelerate, software solutions lag behind, leaving real estate owners and managers unable to profitably scale solar investments.
Volter addresses this critical gap by providing an end-to-end operating system that helps real estate owners, managers and solar installers to deploy, manage and optimise solar portfolios across multiple sites. The platform enables automated billing and invoicing, customised insights and reporting, streamlined installation proposals, along with real-time operational performance monitoring and industry benchmarking, enabling users to maximise revenue and accelerate asset deployment.
Since officially launching its platform in August 2024, Volter has won several major property and real estate clients. It is now expanding its team whilst looking ahead to ambitious growth plans in 2025. Over time Volter will expand into energy services, becoming a platform for batteries, energy usage optimisation, brokerage of renewable energy and virtual power plants.
“C&I properties are merging with energy to become revenue-generating power plants – this is the creation of an entirely new asset class. Forward-thinking real estate owners are rapidly recognising the immense potential of integrating renewable energy sources – such as solar – into their buildings.
“However, there is a critical gap in the market: the lack of robust software solutions to help real estate owners effectively manage and monetise their renewable energy output. Volter fills this void and capitalises on the growing trend to incorporate solar production into C&I real estate, by empowering asset owners, managers and solar installers to seamlessly manage, optimise, and scale onsite renewables across diverse portfolios.”
Luke Buhl-Nielsen, Co-founder of Volter
“At Transition, we’re committed to backing innovations that drive the decarbonisation of our economy. By allowing C&I real estate owners to offer clean energy options to their tenants, Volter’s operating system will accelerate the adoption of renewable energy sources and help to create a more sustainable grid. Given that nearly 40% of global carbon dioxide emissions come from the real estate sector, this shift not only makes economic sense for landlords and tenants, but also plays a crucial role in building a more sustainable and resilient energy future for our planet.”
Ari Helgason, Partner at Transition – which led the funding round
“As electricity prices rise while solar hardware costs decline, rooftop solar has become an increasingly attractive investment for C&I property owners. The Volter platform will be pivotal in advancing sustainable energy infrastructure within the C&I sector by enabling real estate owners to efficiently scale their solar investments and optimise financial returns. We’re excited to support Volter as they meet the increasing demand for sophisticated software solutions in the growing asset class of onsite renewables.”
Tom Wilson, Partner at Seedcamp
Volter was founded by Luke Buhl-Nielsen and Alex Joss who both bring strong backgrounds at fast-growing startups and within the energy and climate space. The duo met at McKinsey, with Luke moving to VC firm Index Ventures before leading healthcare unicorn Kry through its European expansion and $300m Series D fundraise as CFO. Alex moved on to scale various startups and climate non-profits, including a new arm of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which was backed byJohn Doerr, Chairperson of Kleiner Perkins. The duo have hired a strong initial team with top tier VC startup experience across tech, product, design, as well as C&I renewables expertise.
Several prominent angel investors also participated in the funding round, including: Johannes Schildt, Co-Founder and CEO healthtech scaleup Kry; serial climate tech founder Eamon Jubbawy (Isometric, Safi, Sequence, Onfido); and Mark Long, Head of Strategy at commercial real estate fund, Orchard Street.
Volter is a London-based company building the operating system for commercial rooftop solar. The single software platform enables real estate owners, managers and solar installers to better monetise solar assets through automated tenant billing, invoicing and payments; portfolio-wide performance monitoring; customer engagement through online portals, insights, bespoke product & energy services offer alongside financial and ESG reporting.
Over the coming year, Volter will expand to offer broader energy services, becoming a platform for batteries, energy usage optimisation, renewable energy brokerage, and virtual power plants.
