- 5B has raised AUD 12 million as part of its Pre-Series B funding round from a host of investors
- It brings to the Australian company new strategic impact investors and also enables it to speed up technology development roadmap
- The provider of the modular plug & play PV power plant mounting solution Maverick is also set to launch into international markets of the US, Chile and India among others
Australia’s former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has chosen solar energy technology to tip some of his money into as he joined other investors to fund local Australian clean technology company 5B that has developed a prefabricated and rapidly deployable solar solution.
Launched in late 2020 and closed in April 2021, 5B has raised AUD 12 million ($9.3 million) in its Pre-Series B funding round that it claims was fully funded, and oversubscribed. Through this round, 5B said it has been able to bring in new strategic impact investors into the business while also helping it accelerate its technology development roadmap and expand into new global markets.
It raised the proceeds from existing investors led by The AES Corporation and Artesian Venture Capital and including Startmate & Beyond Zero Emissions Chairperson Eytan Lenko, with new investors as Turnbull and Smart Energy Council Director Simon Holmes a Court.
In July 2020, AES Corporation made a strategic investment in 5B (see US Power Generator Invests In Australian Solar Farm).
Along with continuing to build its team, 5B management said the company will deploy the new funding amount raised to:
- establish a new clean energy campus as its headquarters in Sydney
- accelerate its technology development roadmap including soon to be launched next generation of Maverick products, their manufacturing and deployment, and
- launch a series of new international markets including the US, Chile and India
5B will also continue to develop its project pipeline and ‘scale up with its ecosystem of partners at home and internationally in readiness for the 10s and 100s of GWs to come’.
The company with its modular, plug & play solution Maverick made headlines after it joined Sun Cable’s Australia-ASEAN Power Link (AAPL) project in Northern Territory in 2019. In March 2021, Sun Cable submitted a development application with the state’s Development Consent Authority (DCA) to develop phase I of a proposed solar array manufacturing assembly facility for 5B’s Maverick solar array systems (see Solar Array Manufacturing Assembly Proposed For Darwin).
