SolarGaps, a Ukrainian startup which has designed “the world’s first renewable energy producing window blinds that use solar panels to create electricity to power your apartment, home or office,” has received a €50,000 grant as part of the first stage of Horizon 2020’s SME Instrument program.
The news was confirmed to Ukraine Digital News by Rostyslav Grygorenko, the startup’s CFO.
The funding will be used for product development, business development, and marketing.
After the first stage of the program, the startup plans to apply for up to €2.5 million in funding.
As part of the Horizon 2020 program, an EU-backed €80 billion research and innovation program, the European Commission aims to support potentially disruptive SMEs. The selected businesses may receive up to €2.5 million in funding coupled with business coaching and acceleration services.
SolarGaps’ smart blinds automatically track the sun throughout the day, adjusting the position to the optimal angles to generate solar electricity to power devices in your home, apartment or office. The startup claims to help you “save up to 70% on your electric power bill.”
The company’s team, which consists of more than ten people, is split between the USA and Ukraine. While the Californian office is responsible for product design and development, R&D, marketing, and fundraising, the Ukrainian team serves as a back office and a manufacturing platform.
“By the end of the year, we are planning to prepare for mass manufacturing in Ukraine, start certification process in the USA, Canada, and the EU [the startup has been already certified in Ukraine] in order to deploy industrial-scale production in early 2018. Besides North America and Canada, we see the Middle East, Africa and Australia as prospective markets for SolarGaps,” Grygorenko told Ukraine Digital News.
“We have signed letters of intent with twenty dealers who are interested in promoting our offer in nearly 30 countries,” he added.
SolarGaps was featured among top ten Ukrainian startups in 2016. This past spring the company was also among CB Insights’ list of 92 renewable energy companies outside the US that have raised equity funds since 2015.
In June, SolarGaps raised a bit more than $100,000 on Kickstarter. Last year, the startup attracted $120,000 from several investors
Source: SolarGaps, Horizon 2020
