Energy costs: Enviria offers solar systems for companies

German companies suffer from high energy costs. Enviria from Frankfurt wants to turn it into a business and equip company roofs in Germany with solar energy.

According to the Fraunhofer Institute, there are around 40 million buildings in Germany, 21 million of which are commercial buildings. Only ten percent of the roof areas of German buildings are currently used to generate electricity. Enviria wants to turn this untapped potential into a business. Co-founder and CEO Melchior Schulze Brock describes Enviria as the “Enpal for the B2B market”. The Frankfurt startup offers photovoltaic (PV) solutions exclusively for commercial and corporate customers.

Blackrock invests from 7 billion funds

As part of a Series B financing round, Enviria is now raising around 185 million euros (200 million US dollars) from the world's largest investment company Blackrock. BlackRock is investing from its seven billion US dollar climate infrastructure fund Global Renewable Power IV (GRP IV). Just a year ago, the solar company secured bridge financing in the double-digit million range from the Eiffel Investment Group.

According to its own information, the startup has grown organically since it was founded in 2017 until 2022. In mid-2022, the venture capitalist Redalpine, the impact investor Alter Equity, Galileo Green Energy, and the investment bank BNP Paribas Développement invested 22.5 million euros in the solar company. Since then, the company has focused on growth.

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Rent, buy, lease

Enviria offers B2B customers holistic PV solutions, a solar ecosystem so to speak. The company takes care of everything, from financing to assembly and maintenance. The solar startup has already implemented 500 commercial projects. The customers therefore mainly come from logistics, the real estate industry and the manufacturing industry. The main thing is that they have at least 700 square meters of unused roof space.

Customers can choose from various solar options: rent or buy PV systems or lease their unused roof space for solar use. The PV solutions can be supplemented by additional offers such as e-mobility solutions, electricity storage and heat pumps.

When Enviria was launched in 2013, the founders Enrico Heymann, Ronny Thorenz and Melchior Schulze Brock were behind it. The latter has been the sole managing director of the Frankfurt startup since 2020.