Startup · $88m raised
Sydney, NSW
Every investor coverage indicates participated in a round SunDrive raised.
| Investor | Rounds | Invested |
|---|---|---|
| ARENA | Grant · Grant · Grant · Grant | $39,000,000 |
| Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) | Grant · Grant · Grant · Grant · Grant | $48,300,000 |
| Blackbird Ventures | Series B · Series A | - |
| Cameron Adams | Series B | - |
| Clean Energy Finance Corporation | Series B | $7,000,000 |
| Grok Ventures | Series B · Series A | - |
| Main Sequence Ventures | Series B | - |
| Malcolm Turnbull | Series B | - |
| Mike Cannon-Brookes | Series B | - |
| NSW Environmental Trust | Grant | $3,000,000 |
| Robyn Denholm | Series B | - |
| Robyn Denholm | Series B | - |
Investors whose own portfolio pages list SunDrive, even though we haven't found any coverage of the round yet.
| Investor | Listed on |
|---|---|
| Virescent Ventures | its portfolio page ↗ |
Companies SunDrive acquired or merged with, per published coverage. Buying a company is not investing in one: nothing here counts in the deals column.
Stories naming SunDrive. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Sunman Group wins $171 million in federal and NSW funding for a Hunter Valley solar panel factory; earlier grants to Tindo Solar, Stellar PV, Solquartz and SunDrive are also recalled.
Climate Salad's report says Australia's climate tech sector has passed 7,000 workers across 730 startups and drew $680 million in venture capital; Sea Forest's ASX debut and fund commitments point to investor appetite.
Weekly roundup of eight raises totalling $572.12 million, led by Firmus's $500 million round; RAGE Biotech, SunDrive, Number 8 Bio, Fabra, Keeyu, MyGig and Drone-Hand also funded, plus two RAGE Biotech executive appointments.
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The renewable energy agency will grant SunDrive up to $25.3 million to scale its copper solar cell technology with partners Maxwell and Vistar, adding to $14 million in earlier support.
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Australian solar firm SunDrive has signed a JDA with Chinese equipment makers Maxwell Technologies and Vistar, adding to partnerships with Trina Solar and AGL and an earlier Arena grant.
Solar pioneer Zhengrong Shi intends a Newcastle factory for frameless lightweight panels via Sunman's Energus subsidiary, eyeing federal programs; CEFC, Southern Cross Venture Partners and Softbank China are recalled as backers.
A federal opposition senator attacks Labor's solar manufacturing program and SunDrive, which has cut staff and changed CEO while pursuing partnerships with AGL and Trina Solar to localise panel production.
Mike Cannon-Brookes' investment vehicle Grok Ventures has hired Tan Kueh, ex-Macquarie, UBS and BlackRock, as CEO, joining CIO Jeremy Kwong-Law, as it sharpens its strategy around climate investing.
A rolling roundup of Australian energy-sector job moves, listing dozens of executives, directors and ministers joining or leaving utilities, regulators, developers and industry bodies between May and December 2023.
Weekly roundup covering nine Australian startups' new capital totalling $40.5 million, across solar, quantum computing, marketing tech and crowdfunding, plus a look back at Aconex's $1.6 billion Oracle sale.
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SunDrive secured an A$11 million ARENA grant to take its copper-metallised solar cell manufacturing from prototype to commercial scale in Sydney, with plans targeting up to 5GW of yearly capacity.
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Blackbird interviews Remedy Robotics co-founder Dave Bell about his move from medicine to surgical robotics and his mentoring in its Foundry program, noting Foundry applications are open.
Australian venture investors AirTree, Blackbird, Square Peg and OneVentures review their 2022 deployment and fund raises and predict capital efficiency, venture credit, consolidation and selective funding will shape 2023.
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ARENA has awarded $2.78 million to a University of Sydney professor partnering with SunDrive on perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells. The piece also recalls SunDrive's $21 million Series B and names its backers.
Ignition Lane's weekly tech roundup covering record Australian VC fund raises, several green-tech startup funding rounds, Deliveroo's administration, the FTX collapse, and takeover offers for ELMO and Nitro.
Also Techboard
NSW Environmental Trust grants $3 million to solar innovator SunDrive within a $6.5 million allocation shared with Hysata, Southern Green Gas and Quickstep; SunDrive's recent series A drew CEFC alongside Blackbird and Grok Ventures.
Roundup of six Australian startups that together secured about $196 million this week, covering raises by Airwallex, SunDrive, T-Shirt Ventures, Iluminr, Foodini and Banksia Academy.
SunDrive has raised a Series A round co-led by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Main Sequence Ventures, with Blackbird and Grok also backing its copper-based solar cell technology.
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Atlassian's Cannon-Brookes, via his family firm Grok Ventures, has invested $200 million in renewables project financier Infradebt days after his AGL bid was rejected; the capital is already funding a Queensland battery project.
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UNSW spin-out SunDrive has made its first full-size rooftop panel using record-efficiency copper-based cells; the piece recalls the $9 million ARENA grant it won in October 2020.
Also RenewEconomy
Weekly roundup covering Canva's huge raise and rich-list climb, a run of Australian startup funding rounds including SiteMinder and Mable, Domain's purchase of IDS, and Mailchimp's sale to Intuit.
Also Startup Daily·Australian FinTech·Cut Through Venture·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Australian FinTech
Profile of SunDrive, the Sydney solar startup whose copper-based cells set a world efficiency record, covering its founders, backers including Grok Ventures, Blackbird and ARENA, and plans for rooftop then large-scale markets.
Blackbird answers common questions about its new Aotearoa Community Lead job, covering the New Zealand team's community events, programmes with partners, ethical investing approach, venture capital business model and application process.
An opinion column argues Australia should rebuild local solar panel manufacturing, recounting lost ventures like CSG Solar, citing SunDrive's $8 million raise, and urging coordinated government policy against Chinese dominance.
Blackbird's year-end review covers its fourth fund announcement, investments in companies including See-Mode, Morse Micro and SafetyCulture, Startmate's climate cohort intakes, Mike Cannon-Brookes joining its board, and numerous team hires.
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ARENA announces a $3 million grant to SunDrive, an Australian solar startup, to commercialise copper-based solar cell manufacturing and scale its technology toward household rooftop use.
Also Blackbird Ventures portfolio·@AuManufacturing·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·RenewEconomy·RenewEconomy·RenewEconomy·RenewEconomy·RenewEconomy
Blackbird led SunDrive's five million dollar Series A, part of an eight million dollar raising that includes an ARENA grant, while partner Niki Scevak joins the solar cell startup's board.
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Podcast episode exploring SunDrive's solar cell technology, its founders' ambitions, and why Blackbird invested in the company despite the cleantech sector's history of failures.