Wunder Capital raises $112 million to scale C&I finance solutions

Some companies in the solar industry are finance companies, others are technology companies, and still others are both. And this third area has seen a particular emphasis on innovation, particularly in the commercial and industrial (C&I) solar space.

Yesterday solar finance solutions provider Wunder Capital, which uses a proprietary software to screen loan applicants and connect them to investment, announced that it has raised $112 million in its Series B round.

This follows $3.6 million that the company raised in its Series A round in March 2016, an increase of more than 30-fold and indicating that the company’s ability to attract investment is scaling rapidly.

Cyrus Capital Partners led the Series B round, and Cyrus partner John Rapaport will join Wunder’s Board of Directors. Techstars Ventures, which led the company’s Series A round, also participated in the funding.

Along with the increase in funding, Wunder says that its deployment of capital has grown rapidly over the last year, supporting large-scale C&I solar in more than 15 states. The company says that it has grown 10-fold “across key metrics”, but did not state what those metrics are.

Wunder notes that over the last year it has been not only providing financing for C&I solar deployment, but making improvements to its process. “Our engineering team has been rolling out solutions that provide order-of-magnitude efficiencies beyond the industry’s status quo,” explains Wunder in a blog post announcing the financing.

“We have been streamlining our origination processes, automating our underwriting framework, and bolstering our asset management capabilities.”

Wunder notes that it plans to use the new funds to “double-down” on its investments in technology, including its software development team, as well as expanding its project finance offerings, and expanding its network of partners in solar development and installation.