Tesla builds them, an Austrian company also builds them, and now the Estonian startup Roofit.Solar will appear more often in the future. Because the company, founded in 2016, announces today that it has received 6.45 million euros in a financing round to boost the production and distribution of building-integrated solar roofs. While startups and scale-ups in the photovoltaic sector are currently still very much concerned with retrofitting PV systems, the Estonian company is dedicated to complete solar roofs, which are mainly used in new buildings.
The money comes primarily from the existing investors BayWa re Energy Ventures from Germany and EdgeCap Ventures from London and Tallinn. Overall, Roofit.Solar now has 17 million euros in equity and an additional 2 million euros in subsidies. You want to score points in the B2C segment with everyone who wants elegant metal solar roofs instead of retrofit panels, as well as in the B2B segment as a supplier for the roofing industry who want to expand their product portfolio with solar roofs. In all likelihood, the demand for a solar boom in 2022 (read more here) will continue to grow. By 2027, solar will be the world‘s largest source of energy, ahead of oil and gas.
Solar will be the world‘s largest source of energy by 2027
Of course, the Estonian startup is also noticing this boom. “We have continuously increased our turnover, developed products and software and concluded agreements with well-known distributors and roofing companies across Europe. As a result, we have gained the trust and support of our stakeholders and, after an exceptionally strong fiscal year 2022, we are looking forward to 2023 with confidence,” says Raimond Russak, CFO and co-founder of Roofit.Solar. In 2022, sales could have tripled and production doubled, and the team has more than doubled.
The Estonian solar roofs can already be found in the core markets of Estonia, Sweden and Germany, but have also been sold in Norway, Poland, Austria, Belgium, Great Britain and Switzerland. They are not only possible for new buildings, but also wherever large-scale conversions are being carried out, i.e. for renovations and for historical and listed buildings. It is also clear that such solar roofs are visually more elegant and do not look like PV panels from a distance, but of course they are also significantly more expensive.
Austrian company challenges Tesla with its own solar roofs