Planted Solar Secures $12M to Accelerate Solar Deployment

Company Helps Developers and Independent Power Producers Unlock Solar
Projects with Smarter, Faster, and More Cost-Effective Solutions, Welcomes
Piva Capital as Investor 

OAKLAND, Calif., July 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Planted Solar, the solar deployment platform helping project developers build faster, smarter, and more profitably, today announced a $12 million funding round anchored by Piva Capital, with participation from existing investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Team Builder Ventures. This investment comes at a critical juncture as the U.S. solar industry grapples with unprecedented demand and increasing deployment challenges. 

Solar Demand is Surging but Deployments Can't Keep Up

U.S. demand for clean energy is skyrocketing—84% of new power capacity added in 2024 came from solar and storage—but the industry's ability to keep pace is faltering. At a time of record growth, developers face land constraints, soaring costs, and execution challenges that are slowing project timelines, shrinking viable pipelines, and delaying urgently needed capacity.

Enter Planted:  Rethinking How Solar Gets Built

Traditional solar deployment remains too slow, costly, and fragmented—developers juggle dozens of suppliers, rigid hardware, and manual installation processes. Founded in 2020, Planted Solar was created to replace this outdated model with a fully integrated platform that streamlines every step of project delivery.

"We've seen the headlines, but the real story is happening behind the scenes," said Eric Brown, CEO of Planted Solar. "Forward-looking developers are still moving, and we're helping them move faster. We're rethinking solar deployment to deliver what developers urgently need to build energy generation capacity today: less risk, better returns, and faster time to power. Piva's deep experience with energy innovation and alignment with our vision of abundant and affordable energy make them an ideal partner as we scale to deliver the smarter approach that the solar industry needs."

Here's how it works:                                                                                                

• Smarter Digital Planning – Planted's software replaces fragmented tools with a unified workflow that generates optimized layouts, energy models, and engineering drawings—feeding directly into field execution to accelerate timelines.
  
  
• High-Density, Terrain-Following Hardware – Planted's arrays reduce land requirements by half and eliminate the need for costly site grading, unlocking new project sites that were previously infeasible.
  
  
• Rapid Installation Tools – Field robotics and simplified components enable faster builds with smaller crews, increasing labor productivity and minimizing errors in the field.

The result: developers can deploy solar projects twice as fast, with lower costs and less risk, while expanding pipelines and improving project economics in today's challenging market.

Key benefits of Planted's system include:

• 50% less land use compared to traditional solar
• Terrain-following arrays that unlock slopes of up to 27%
• 2x faster time to power, accelerating manufacturing and data center build-outs
• 70% less steel required, reducing material and logistics costs
• 30% lower cost of energy, enabling better returns for developers and investors

Partnering with Piva Capital to Deliver the Technology the Industry Needs Now

"Solar developers don't have a decade to solve these problems—the crunch is happening right now," said Mark Gudiksen, Managing Partner at Piva Capital. "Planted Solar's platform clears some of the industry's biggest roadblocks by making it faster and cheaper to get projects in the ground. This is exactly the kind of pragmatic innovation the energy transition needs."

With the new financing, Planted Solar plans to accelerate the development of its digital and hardware solutions, expand deployment capacity, and forge strategic partnerships globally. The company is currently executing projects across the U.S., ranging from community solar installations to behind-the-meter systems for hospitals and infrastructure, while ramping up in international markets such as Asia-Pacific and Europe, where demand for land-efficient clean energy is surging.

About Planted Solar
Planted Solar is redefining solar deployment with an integrated hardware and software platform that pairs high-density, terrain-following arrays with automated installation. Planted's smarter, streamlined approach helps developers, EPCs, and IPPs unlock more land, lower costs, and build projects in half the time—delivering stronger project outcomes and accelerating the delivery of abundant energy. Learn more at www.plantedsolar.com.

About Piva Capital
Piva Capital is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm investing in visionary entrepreneurs solving the world's critical industrial challenges with breakthrough technologies and innovative business models. For more information, visit Piva.vc, or the company's LinkedIn and Medium profiles.

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SOURCE Planted Solar