John Doerr's family investment office is backing a recently formed residential solar company to the tune of $10 million.
Doerr's Foris Ventures is investing the cash in Complete Solaria Inc. The move is part of a previously announced $30 million round of bridge financing the San Ramon company raised as it prepares to go public in a merger with a blank-check company.
"We are thrilled to gain the support of such a well-respected business leader and investor," Complete Solaria CEO Will Anderson said in a news release announcing the investment.
The investment from the Kleiner Perkins chairman comes about three months after the company was formed from the merger of two older solar businesses — Complete Solar Inc., a San Ramon-based provider of software for designing and providing estimates for residential solar systems, and Fremont-based Solaria Corp., which offers solar panels. It also comes about four months after Freedom Acquisition I Corp. (NYSE: FACT) announced plans to merge with and take public the combined company.
In addition to Doerr's investment, Complete Solaria has raised $14.2 million in bridge funding from its chairman, T.J. Rodgers; $3.5 million from Freedom's sponsors and $2 million from other investors. Doerr and Rodgers are both longtime backers of green technology companies.
Freedom is a New York-based blank-check company led by Tidjane Thiam, the former CEO of Credit Suisse. It raised about $345 million two years ago in an initial public offering and from other fundraising activities.
Complete Solaria projects it will receive about $376 million in proceeds from the merger, if none of Freedom's shareholders ask for refunds. But that's an unlikely prospect. On average, investors holding 85% to 95% of the shares of such special purpose acquisition companies have redeemed them for cash ahead of the entities' mergers.
Following its combination, Complete Solaria expects it will be valued at about $888 million. It plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CSLR.
Here's more Bay Area venture and startup news at the start of the week:
Fundings
- Juniper Square Inc., San Francisco, $133 million: Owl Rock, a division of asset manager Blue Owl Capital Inc. (NYSE:OWL), led the growth round for this provider of software designed to help manage investment partnerships. Ribbit Capital, Redpoint Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Fifth Wall Ventures and Pappy Capital also invested.
- ShareWell Labs Co., San Francisco, $1.3 million: Quiet Capital, GoForward Inc. CEO Adrian Aoun, Cruise LLC CEO Kyle Vogt, former Yelp Inc. Chief Technology Officer Russell Simmons and former Ancestry LLC CEO Margo Georgiadis invested in the pre-seed round for this provider of an online-based peer support service for mental health conditions.
- Bloomjoy Inc. (dba Fondo), San Francisco, $1.2 million: Y Combinator, Liquid2 Ventures, Transmedia Capital and GMO Venture Partners invested in the seed round for this provider of accounting software for startups. Fondo also raised $1.8 million in debt financing from Capchase Inc.
M&A
- Francisco Partners bought control of GreenSlate LLC from VSS Capital Partners for an undisclosed amount. VSS, a New York-based private equity firm, retained a minority stake in GreenSlate following the deal. Francisco is a private equity firm based in San Francisco. Based in New York, GreenSlate offers payroll and accounting software.
