Victor Gardrinier & Wouter Draijer, co-founders
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Founded in 2019 but officially incorporated in 2021
https://solarmente.es/
Born in Spain during the early stages of the Covid pandemic, SolarMente was founded to provide an alternative source of energy to homeowners who wanted a more eco-friendly and less costly option to the traditional methods.
After being accepted on the prestigious Y Combinator programme, SolarMente have gone from strength to strength. They have their own proprietary software allowing the easy management of solar installations & home electrification of homes in Spain. They now start to combine this energy management and energy trading to offer their customers superior savings. This is backed up by the ongoing education, support and advice SolarMente customers can expect from the brand.
The brand is here to disrupt the market and are excited to be at the forefront of an industry that will become ever more important in the years to come.
Victor Gardrinier & Wouter Draijer, co-founders
Due to the macroeconomic climate over the past few years, there have been a number of times that reliability issues have caused a strain on SolarMente’s supply chain and resulted in some sleepless nights and unnecessary headaches for the founders and wider team.
One particular time stood out to founder Victor Gardrinier, when a large supply chain issue in Shanghai meant that a big order they had booked failed to arrive in Spain.
Noting this change in reliability, unpredictable supplier timelines and their subsequent growing burn rate, they knew they needed to make a change. They brought a lot in house and made more regular inventory procurements.
However, with sizeable minimum orders every couple of months, a strain was felt on the company coffers. So they decided to look for cash to help plug the cash gap. The banks were no help so instead, they were forced to look for alternative sources of funding.
Enter Uncapped.
Upon doing some research into the options out there, they came across Uncapped who were presenting the best offer for SolarMente.
Victor also remembers the additional support Uncapped provided beyond the provision of capital. This was something Uncapped competitors were not offering and so was a huge green tick in the Uncapped camp.
SolarMente were approved for their first Uncapped advance of €200k in Q1 2023 and have subsequently gone on to access two more investments since then.
As a result they have been able to easily, and without stress, ensure their sizable inventory orders haven't eaten into their margins and been able to separate their burn calculations and procurement.
They have also managed to cut back on some of the costly expenditures associated with having a lot of contractors, keep their financial reporting tidy and acquire hundreds of happy customers as a result of timely and efficient solar installation and management.
Uncapped’s contribution, both via capital and associated support, has given SolarMente a helping hand in achieving profitability as of Q2 2023 which is hugely exciting!
SolarMente are just getting started and have massive aspirations for the near future. Uncapped are proud to be a partner in their growth and look forward to witnessing the continued impact they will have on customers, and the planet, going forward.
Use of funds
Investments
Outcome
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