{"id":5289,"date":"2025-05-20T10:12:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-20T02:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/solestial-announces-17m-series-a-funding-round-to-scale-space-solar-manufacturing\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T10:12:03","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T02:12:03","slug":"solestial-announces-17m-series-a-funding-round-to-scale-space-solar-manufacturing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/solestial-announces-17m-series-a-funding-round-to-scale-space-solar-manufacturing\/","title":{"rendered":"Solestial Announces $17M Series A Funding Round to Scale Space Solar Manufacturing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\" itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/1747717645399_638833144509555293.png\" width=\"712\" height=\"385\" alt=\"Solestial Announces $17M Series A Funding Round to Scale Space Solar Manufacturing\" class=\"imageload removeImageattr\" data-original=\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/1747717645399_638833144509555293.png\" style=\"\"><meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.satnow.com\/news\/1747717645399_638833144509555293.png\"><meta itemprop=\"width\" content=\"712\"><meta itemprop=\"height\" content=\"385\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>Solestial<\/strong>, the solar energy company for space, announced a significant milestone with the closing of its $17M Series A funding round led by <strong>AE Ventures<\/strong>. The round welcomed new investors Crosscut Ventures, Zeon Ventures, and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation\u2019s ME Innovation Fund (general partner: Global Brain Corporation), with participation from existing investors Airbus Ventures, General Purpose Venture Capital, Industrious Ventures, Stellar Ventures, and Techstars.<\/p>\n<div class=\"widget-layout related-content-also-read-box my-3\">\n<h4 class=\"mb-0\">Also Read: What are the Different Types of Solar Panels used in Space?<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Series A funding enables Solestial to continue scaling its manufacturing capacity of silicon photovoltaics to 1 megawatt per year, a rate comparable to the estimated annual manufacturing capacity of all US and EU III-V space solar companies combined.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside the raise, Solestial also announced the appointment of <strong><\/strong><strong>Margo de Naray<\/strong><strong>&nbsp;as Chief Executive Officer. De Naray, formerly Senior VP &amp; GM of Space Products and Services at Astra<\/strong>, brings 20 years of extensive commercial and operations management experience in growth and high-tech environments. Founding CEO, Stanislau Herasimenka, will assume the role of Chief Technology Officer to focus on advancing the company\u2019s product roadmap and rapidly scaling operations technology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>We are thrilled to welcome Margo to lead Solestial into its next chapter,<\/em>\u201d said <strong>Herasimenka<\/strong>. \u201cThis transition allows me to continue developing our cutting-edge technology, while Margo brings additional strategic leadership and operational experience to deliver at scale.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>De Naray joins Solestial amid strong momentum. \u201c<em>We\u2019re seeing tremendous market demand, and we are focused on delivering high-quality products<\/em>,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re hiring, scaling production, and qualifying our technology, which is already deployed on multiple missions in space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Space solar is a critical bottleneck in a rapidly growing industry with an ever-expanding set of missions from national security to lunar exploration<\/em>,\u201d said <strong><\/strong><strong>Beckett Jackson<\/strong><strong>, Partner at AE Ventures<\/strong>. \u201cSolestial is uniquely positioned to serve spacecraft manufacturers with mass production of a lightweight, radiation-hardened solution at lower cost and a fraction of the lead time of the current standard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The only space solar manufacturer with demonstrated ability to self-heal radiation damage, Solestial offers spacecraft manufacturers the ability to significantly reduce cost and weight without sacrificing energy needs or performance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSolestial continues to revolutionize low-cost, lightweight solar power for space. Stan\u2019s continued focus on the technical breadth of Solestial products and Margo\u2019s new addition as a leader of the team are the ingredients to unlock the next phases growth and success,\u201d said <strong><\/strong><strong>Mat Costes, Partner at Airbus Ventures<\/strong><strong><\/strong>. \u201cWe are also thrilled to welcome new investors and see investors from the seed round returning, collectively signifying what we all know\u2014the market applications for this technology are robust, fast accelerating, and Solestial is ready to meet market demand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Our colleagues at&nbsp;<\/em><em>Mitsubishi Electric Corporation<\/em><em>&nbsp;have been working with Solestial for a number of years to evaluate the potential of Solestial\u2019s technologies<\/em>,\u201d said <strong><\/strong><strong>Komi Matsubara<\/strong><strong>, Executive Officer (Associate), Vice President, Business Innovation at Mitsubishi Electric Corporation<\/strong>. \u201c<em>We see tremendous potential in Solestial\u2019s technology and are pleased to deepen the relationship and support their development.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With strong customer demand, Solestial has prioritized scaling production. Since opening its Tempe, Arizona manufacturing facility in 2023, the company has added square footage each year, more than doubled its workforce, and delivered commercial products to dozens of companies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Solestial, the solar energy company for space, announced a significant milestone with the closing of its $17M Series A funding round led by AE Ventures. The round welcomed new investors Crosscut Ventures, Zeon Ventures, and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation\u2019s ME Innovation Fund (general partner: Global Brain Corporation), with participation from existing investors Airbus Ventures, General Purpose [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26,62],"class_list":["post-5289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ground","tag-solar-panels"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5289"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}