Ojjo, a provider of solar foundations, has closed a $40 million Series C funding round led by NGP ETP, the energy transition investing platform of NGP, with Ajax Strategies also participating. In addition, James Wallis, partner at NGP, has joined Ojjo’s board of directors.
The new funding will accelerate Ojjo’s growth and execution on its 9 GW active project pipeline. Ojjo’s patented Earth Truss System offers a fast and efficient means of securing ground-mount solar systems. The company’s system has been contracted or constructed in over 1.6 GW of solar projects to date, including on the nation’s largest standalone solar and storage project, Gemini Solar.
Ojjo has previously raised a total of $27 million across two prior funding rounds, with participation from Cthulhu Ventures and other investors.
“We’re thrilled to welcome our investors, NGP ETP and Ajax, who have long shared Ojjo’s vision for accelerating the growing and vibrant solar industry,” says Mike Miskovsky, chairman and CEO of Ojjo. “For too long, our industry has had to make do with pile foundations that were never designed for solar applications – often resulting in avoidable project costs and labor inefficiencies. As we enter the era of TW-scale solar, our industry will increasingly require optimized, solar-specific mounting and installation hardware. This investment is the critical next step to scaling Ojjo’s innovative technology and speeding the nation’s transition to solar.”
“Solar foundations represent a major untapped opportunity in the industry. We believe that Ojjo’s experienced team is perfectly positioned to deliver innovation, automation, and cost savings at a time when the industry needs it most,” states James Wallis, partner at NGP. “NGP’s extensive portfolio and deep expertise – spanning both traditional oil and gas as well as energy transition segments – allowed us to quickly recognize the benefits of Ojjo’s structural design and drilling-process innovations, resulting in dramatic reductions in pre-drill and remediation requirements. We are excited to offer our financial support and strategic guidance as Ojjo continues to expand and bring value to this market.”
“We’ve been early supporters of Ojjo’s team and technology, and our follow-on investment was a natural fit for our shared vision of delivering revolutionary solutions to solve climate change,” comments Matt Rogers, Ajax’s operating partner. “The timing couldn’t be better for solar innovations such as Ojjo with the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which enables consistent growth over the next decade for domestic renewable energy production. Ojjo has all the necessary capabilities to help the industry scale to take full advantage of this unique and timely opportunity.”
“Ojjo’s Earth Truss systems have been proven in the field on hundreds of megawatts of projects, in a variety of soil conditions. It’s clear the industry is hungry for technologies that can deliver project-level cost savings relative to today’s commodity offerings,” mentions Helena Kimball, president of Ojjo. “We have worked hard to establish the supply chain sophistication, drilling machine fleet uptime, and the field support to ensure our EPC customers have rewarding experiences installing Ojjo foundations. We are grateful to our investors for recognizing Ojjo’s advantage, and for providing us the financial stability to scale well into the future.”
Ojjo provides its Earth Truss hardware, field engineering services and automated Truss Driver machines to solar developers, EPCs and their foundation subcontractors. In addition, Ojjo has partnered with solar tracker manufacturers to develop streamlined, fully compatible hardware, further reducing steel componentry and overall system costs.
