Climate-KIC start-up Solease receives €100k boost from Utrecht Energy Fund

The newly set up Utrecht Energy Fund will support Climate-KIC start-up Solease with a loan of €100.000, the Dutch organisation announced yesterday (25 November).

With the new funding, CEO Pierre Vermeulen hopes “to provide the first fifty customers in Utrecht with renewable energy.”

Solease, winner of the Dutch edition of the Climate-KIC Venture Competition in 2012 and one of the competitors at the Climate-KIC Innovation Festival in Bologna, is one of the fastest growing Dutch Climate-KIC start-ups. Solease offers solar panels for a fixed monthly fee.

Within its lease model, Solease purchases the solar system, has it installed and takes care of maintenance, repairs and insurance.

Customers

Among Solease’s customers are Climate-KIC partner Utrecht University, UMC Utrecht and Van Benthem & Keulen Lawyers.

Thanks to Solease, their employees are now able to rent solar panels including full customer service. Vermeulen: “By doing so, they can save up to 10 % on their energy bills, while reducing CO2 emission by two tons a year, the equivalent of driving 15.000 kilometer a year.”

Utrecht Energy Fund

The Utrecht Energy Fund, initiated by the City of Utrecht to support local enterprises that want to invest in energy reduction and in producing renewable energy, was launched on 25 November in Utrecht.

The Fund has a sum of €6 million available to finance local, sustainable projects that are too big for SME support and yet too small for bank funding. Solease, along with LomboxNet and MKB Energie Financiering, is one of the first companies to be financed by the Utrecht Energy Fund.

Click here for a news article in the Dutch press.