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The vitality and local weather crises imply companies and owners at the moment are pondering twice about the place they get their vitality from and the way a lot they’re paying for it.
Solivus is on a mission to simplify the decarbonisation of the constructed surroundings with light-weight photo voltaic so extra companies and owners cut back their local weather influence, have extra vitality safety and cut back vitality payments.
Solivus are pioneers in light-weight photo voltaic tech options with photo voltaic that’s 10x lighter than standard panels.
Now elevating on Seedrs, we sat down with founder Jo Parker-Swift to realize perception to her private journey constructing Solivus.
We’d like to learn about your profession earlier than Solivus and the place you first discovered that entrepreneurial spark.
That is my third startup. I based two companies earlier than with profitable exits and now run a climatetech. With each my earlier two companies, I noticed an issue that wanted fixing and created a brand new market which scaled quick within the UK. One was a administration coaching consultancy for a specific area of interest and one was a software program firm. Each have been completely completely different however the abilities wanted to drive a profitable enterprise are transferable. I didn’t personal any IP with both of these companies however we did scale quick. The software program firm conquered 75% of the market. An awesome workforce and the correct collaborations have been the keys to success. It’s the identical for Solivus– solely this time we’re additionally working with {hardware} and IP and the potential is actually world.
What’s Solivus and what drawback are you fixing?
Solivus is on a mission to decarbonise the constructed surroundings with light-weight photo voltaic so extra companies and owners can have higher vitality safety, cut back vitality payments and decrease their carbon footprint. New era light-weight photo voltaic that’s 10X lighter than standard photo voltaic which solves the issues of weight and aesthetics that standard photo voltaic faces.
We take a look at and study new era photo voltaic applied sciences and we then discover new purposes, and create new patented merchandise and options.
The issue I initially recognized was that lots of people don’t want to put photo voltaic panels on their roofs as a result of they don’t look the very best. Many owners would really like one thing that’s ground-mounted, appears cool, is clear expertise which makes use of no uncommon earth supplies and helps them do their bit to assist the planet. I used to be certainly one of these owners.
Initially, I wished to create a sort of photo voltaic tree and the Solivus Arc is how this concept has advanced. At first it was not even about saving cash however about vitality safety. Nevertheless, given the current developments with world vitality, the Solivus Arc is now good for the planet and pocket.
The thought to focus on giant industrial roofs happened as I used to be driving over Dartford Bridge in the future. I noticed a great deal of industrial buildings with no photo voltaic and found that the rationale was the load problem with long-span constructing buildings. There I used to be engaged on growing the Solivus Arc working with photo voltaic that’s as skinny as paper and 10x lighter than standard photo voltaic. Let’s simply say it’s troublesome for somebody with an entrepreneurial mindset to see a market alternative like this and never act on it.
With the present vitality disaster, are you able to inform us how Solivus is positioning itself for fulfillment?
For industrial constructing house owners and owners, Solivus solves the issues of vitality safety, saving cash, and decarbonisation and the place we are able to, we carry nice design. We’re positioning ourselves as the easy go-to firm for light-weight photo voltaic options the place standard photo voltaic can’t be put in and design-led, ground-mounted photo voltaic options. We’re centered on the UK first after which scaling internationally.
40% of economic buildings have roofs that can’t use standard photo voltaic panels resulting from weight or fixing points. Solivus helps flip industrial buildings into the photo voltaic farms of the long run and what a 12 months it’s been! Solivus at the moment are revenue-generating, we now have doubled our workforce once more and we now have delivered installations in our goal markets together with Airports, Sports activities stadiums and Warehouses. Now we have to scale quick to satisfy demand.
We do as an organization attempt to hold issues easy for patrons. Our clients’ companies are concerned with flight, meals or logistics. They don’t seem to be vitality firms. There are loads of unknowns in the case of producing clear vitality onsite so we hold it easy. We’re a one-stop store. Slightly than clients needing to go to designers or finance folks, or engineering folks, we assist them by means of the entire course of and take away the overwhelm they may in any other case expertise.
Commonplace observe for us as we speak is to take a look at their present vitality demand within the constructing first. We then can scale up their photo voltaic vitality capability progressively. For instance, they could go to an EV fleet afterward or look to get battery storage onsite. Growing their photo voltaic capability as their electrical energy calls for develop will save a fortune within the long-run however nobody must begin with every part instantly. We provide a one-stop-shop of engineering design, set up, monitoring and upkeep and finance for our clients and collaborate with different firms to combine their photo voltaic with different applied sciences equivalent to EV chargers, constructing vitality administration methods and batteries. Everybody on this sector is having to study and evolve quick to collaborate collectively.
On the product growth aspect, we now have our Solivus Arc for owners and lots of companies are additionally within the Solivus Arc for his or her head workplaces. We additionally produce other merchandise in our roadmap to create from light-weight photo voltaic applied sciences.
What motivates you?
The workforce. They’re an incredible bunch. The resilience and willpower that all of them present is kind of extraordinary. I’ve had the privilege to work with decided folks through the years however I’ve not skilled one thing like this with so many individuals pulling their weight and pushing so arduous to succeed. I do know that is going to sound tacky however I actually love them. Everyone seems to be thrilled when we now have success but in addition typically a bit down if we don’t succeed at one thing. That’s once I must dig deep. Everybody watches out for one another and arranges to satisfy and work collectively on sure days of the week on the workplaces. We now have no time for egos so we go away these on the door. Vanity is a harmful trait in my expertise. All of us respect one another’s function within the enterprise. Everyone seems to be valued and an essential a part of our success.
Why do you assume now could be the very best time for Solivus to develop and what do you propose to do with the cash you increase?
With every part that is occurring with the vitality disaster, Solivus are seeing an enormous demand. We have to recruit plenty of folks to scale and broaden and develop our merchandise and options. We even have plans to scale internationally which can contain collaborations and we’ll want Solivus employees in these areas. We additionally want to coach and put money into the prevailing workforce.
What do you like to do in your free time?
I can’t say there may be loads of free time proper now however I do love the countryside. Spending time in nature makes me pleased and I might love in the future to have the ability to contribute and provides again to nature with rewilding tasks. A very good stroll and chat within the countryside, exploring someplace new with household and pals on the weekends adopted by a rustic pub lunch is my thought of a very good day. We even have household in Devon and so we get pleasure from spending time on or by the ocean.
What’s your largest problem now?
In the mean time, our largest problem is attempting to scale quick sufficient with a protracted lead time on gross sales. Scaling the workforce to maintain up with demand whereas ready for bigger tasks to undergo the gross sales cycle and herald revenue to develop. However we are able to develop larger than the revenue that can are available. It’s a case of balancing development with cautious cashflow administration and funding. Fortunately there’s a nice steadiness between myself and Director of Finance Nik Karyadis. After I get a bit too formidable with growth plans, he reigns me again in to what’s potential and when he will get a bit too cautious, I push ahead a bit extra – however all the time simply to this aspect of the unattainable.
In the event you weren’t constructing Solivus, what do you assume you’d be doing?
I’d be constructing one other start-up. If I had received the lottery, I might be serving to a number of different entrepreneurs construct their start-ups. Given the chances of profitable the lottery, my thought is that Solivus will give me that chance as a substitute.
What’s the largest lesson you’ve learnt up to now constructing Solivus?
I knew from my different firms that you will need to encompass your self with glorious gifted folks and to understand and worth these folks. Lots of the abilities and information are transferable from enterprise to enterprise however that is the primary enterprise the place I’ve needed to increase cash and have traders and so I’ve realized to decide on correctly and respect the correct traders. When the time involves tackle institutional traders which our development and ambitions will want, I’ve realized that we should rigorously choose our strategic traders. Choosing the proper strategic traders sooner or later will likely be as essential as choosing the proper folks to affix the Solivus workforce.
Solivus is a good alternative to put money into revolutionary photo voltaic merchandise. Take a look at the marketing campaign web page right here.
