Each year, Sacramento Business Journal Inno reporter Mark Anderson identifies the top local startups set to make waves in the year ahead. OnSight Technology is one of 11 that made the cut in 2024.
OnSight Technology
Folsom-based OnSight Technology is a manufacturer of autonomous robots for the solar industry to inspect solar photovoltaic arrays.
OnSight’s robot has computer vision capabilities and built-in artificial intelligence analysis. It can visually inspect connections and junction boxes on the underside of panels in the field, and it can detect bad cells and panels, offering operators an exact coordinate of where problems need to be addressed. The robots can also detect micro-cracks and even the presence of protected plants and wildlife on the ground.
The company in 2023 raised an undisclosed amount of seed-round of funding from two local investors and Stäubli, a Swiss manufacturer of industrial products. The local investors are Folsom-based venture capital firm Moneta Ventures and GF Ventures, a fund associated with Rocklin-based Growth Factory. The Growth Factory was a previous investor in OnSight. Stäubli is a Swiss manufacturer of robotics equipment and electrical connections, textile weaving equipment and fluid connectors. It employs 6,000 people in 28 countries.
OnSight has manufacturing in El Dorado Hills, where it assembles robots that can perform ground inspections of large-scale solar photovoltaic arrays. OnSight is a 2022 startup with fewer than 20 employees.
OnSight spokesman Jeff Struhm in the fall declined to disclose the company's revenue. He said OnSight has deployed a dozen of its machines in the field, and that it's working on a dozen more. The company is using the investment for research and development and to attract talent, Struhm said.
"OnSight's platform will enable the rapidly growing utility solar market to dramatically reduce commissioning and maintenance costs while improving accuracy and asset performance," said Lokesh Sikaria, managing partner of Moneta Ventures.
