Danish technology startup Sunmapper sells its own technology to fast growing solar platform Otovo.
Otovo has acquired Sunmapper’s Photovoltaic Irradiation and Surface Calculation software – Sunmapper PISC – including IP transfer with endless and universal usage rights, for an undisclosed amount.
The technology enables Otovo to take 3D surface point clouds generated by laser imaging (LiDAR), satellite imagery and stereographic reconstructed models, returning solar irradiation and individual roof surfaces for PV planning.
These advanced capabilities allow Otovo to create exact offers to homeowners seeking to go solar with the best available rates and terms on Otovo’s marketplace of solar installers.
Sunmapper PISC technology makes a shade and light representation whilst identifying structures, terrain and objects. Here revealed from Fuglekvarteret area in Copenhagen.
Sunmapper’s technology has been developed according to research from universities in Australia, USA and China and in cooperation with several Danish municipalities from 2015 onward.
The technology has been in use on sunmapper.dk, a service where Danes can navigate rooftops on every building in the country and get results how much solar energy can be generated there.
We are always looking for ways to give our customers an easier journey, so we’re proud to bring these innovative capabilities to our technician stack. Together with Sunmapper PISC we are going to have the ability to give European homeowners the totally simplest way to go solar, such as really precise results tailored especially to the shape and shades in their roof, states Simen F. Jørgensen, CPO in Otovo.
The company is the top cross-Scandinavian supplier of rooftop solar systems to homeowners and operates a network of installers throughout the region. Otovo’s assignment is to produce every homeowner effective at making and storing her own clean and cheap energy.
- It has always been our vision to simplify the buy choice in solar for residential households and accelerate the transition towards a more sustainable future. I’m proud to deliver the numerous hours of work we’ve put into our software to a fantastic business like Otovo. Together with Otovo and their platform, the Sunmapper PISC software will be able to bring about a substantial number of new solar power instalments, says Maxim Khomiakov, CEO at Sunmapper.
- At present we cover roughly 8 million buildings in Scandinavia with this technology and available datasets. These figures may very quickly be enlarged for global policy, states Khomiakov.
Otovo was started in 2016 by software entrepreneur Simen Jørgensen, Schibsted executive Andreas Thorsheim, Circle K and Statoil F&R executive Lars Syse Christiansen along with the former REC tech director Andreas Bentzen.
The Otovo platform connects homeowners using installer companies. Installers input costs and geographical coverage while Otovo behaves a market where their bids are algorithmically put on the homeowner’s job.
The company has increased roughly NOK 100m in financing to date in rounds led by Agder Energi Ventures and Akershus Energi.
