Converting to sustainable energy can be a costly and confusing process for consumers. Mona Lee is moving the clean energy industry forward with its innovative and customer-centric approach, allowing homeowners to install solar panels and storage for 40-50% lower costs than what the competition offers.

Mona Lee, a Boston-based startup founded by former Tesla employee Walid Halty, has announced the successful closure of a $3.25 million seed funding round. The round included investments from prominent players in the technology and consumer sectors, such as Ludlow Ventures, Shrug VC, Palm Tree Crew (founded by Norwegian DJ Kygo), Coalition Operators, Plug and Play Ventures, and The Pags Group, owned by Boston Celtics’ owner Steve Pagliuca.

Mona Lee is on a mission to make solar, storage and EV charging installation for homes affordable and hassle-free. Since its launch, the company has experienced remarkable growth, installing in over 7 states with over 150 new customers per month and an average cost-per-order of $28,000.

The potential for growth in the home solar and storage industry is staggering, with an estimated $250 billion opportunity over the next six years alone. With 142 million homes in the U.S. and only 2 million having switched to solar in the past two decades, Mona Lee aims to tap into the remaining 140 million homes expected to adopt solar power alone by 2029.

The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act has fueled consumer interest in clean energy in recent years and Mona Lee has met the moment. The company’s unique selling proposition lies in its AI-powered buying experience. Mona Lee’s technology demystifies the process of designing and purchasing a complete solar panel and storage system for homes, while cutting costs for consumers by 40-50%.

Mona Lee’s CEO, Walid Halty, shared his excitement about the company’s recent funding success, stating, “This funding round is a testament to the need for Mona Lee’s innovative approach in the home solar and storage industry. We are committed to making solar and storage installation a no-brainer for all homeowners, and this investment will allow us to further accelerate our growth and expand our reach.”

With its innovative technology and commitment to bringing affordable and seamless solar and storage installation to homes across the country, Mona Lee is poised to redefine the clean energy experience for consumers.

About Mona Lee

Mona Lee is a Boston-based startup co-founded by Walid Halty, an ex-Tesla employee. The company is focused on making solar installation affordable and hassle-free for homeowners. With its AI-powered design and buying experience, Mona Lee aims to simplify the process of purchasing and installing a complete solar panel system–enabling every home to fulfill its own energy needs, while contributing to a more sustainable future.

Co-led by Greenfield Partners and 83North, the new funding will further accelerate the company’s growth in delivering unparalleled global connectivity solutions 

floLIVE, creator of the world’s first and largest hyperlocal global cellular network and a leading provider of global connectivity, network and Connectivity Management Platforms for IoT, announced today that it has raised $47M in a Series C round of funding. The round was co-led by Greenfield Partners and existing investor 83North, with Qualcomm Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, Saban Ventures, and Hazelnut Partners participating in the round.

floLIVE will use the funds to increase its global footprint by partnering with additional MNOs, expand its unique multi-IMSI over eSIM technology, launch an integrated satellite connectivity offering and introduce new and innovative solutions to the market such as advanced location-based applications, network-based cybersecurity services, secure data routing and more.

The global connectivity market has dramatically changed over the last few years, with OEMs and global enterprises becoming more knowledgeable and more demanding in their global IoT connectivity needs. The need for a modern, highly available global connectivity solution that enables real-time visibility, customization of network behaviour, cybersecurity protection and regulatory compliance has become a mandatory requirement.

At the same time, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) who relied on legacy, consumer-oriented platforms are now seeking modern, cloud-based solutions that will not only adhere to the requirements introduced by those global enterprises in a cost-effective way but will also turn their IoT business into a profitable one by generating new business opportunities and achieving better unit economics. Furthermore, they are looking for ways to move away from an over-reliance on roaming agreements, which do not suit all IoT use cases and may be challenged by the wide eSIM adoption.

floLIVE’s unique hyperlocal global network spans across all continents and offers localized connectivity in a streamlined manner. This one-of-a-kind globally distributed and API-driven cellular data network serves as the underlying infrastructure for enterprises, OEMs, IoT Service Providers and MNOs – all who benefit from a modern carrier-grade, secure, robust platform that allows them to build a profitable IoT business while introducing new revenue sources and sophisticated value-added services.

floLIVE’s solutions are based on a unique, advanced, cloud-native software architecture that reduces time to market, guarantees low TCO and provides an unprecedented degree of flexibility. These offerings facilitate high performance and prolonged battery life for LPWA and broadband use cases.

“We look for highly differentiated infrastructure technologies that can support a robust and modern technology stack on top of them”, said Avery Schwartz, Partner at Greenfield Partners. “After tracking the company and space for some time, floLIVE’s rapid growth adds to our conviction that the company has developed a unique solution that elegantly solves for the full matrix of pain points traditionally plaguing the IoT connectivity market. This solution lays the foundation for new and innovative services that will dramatically change the IoT space as we know it; we are delighted to join floLIVE’s promising journey.”

“The value of floLIVE’s offering becomes increasingly clear when global enterprises are looking for a truly unified, sophisticated global connectivity solution and MNOs are searching for more robust and profitable technology partners,” said Yoram Snir, Partner at 83North.

With floLIVE, clients enjoy full management, control and visibility of every network element while supporting all use cases – from one carrier-grade global platform.

“This is a really strong vote of confidence from our existing investors as well as new investor Greenfield Partners, reiterating the value of our solution, especially during a tough economic climate where technology investments have been decreasing substantially,” said Nir Shalom, CEO, floLIVE. “We have already transformed the landscape of global IOT connectivity with our hyperlocal, global platform that addresses the needs of both OEMs and MNOs. We’re excited to use this investment to increase our global footprint and deliver more value to our customers.”

About floLIVE
floLIVE operates the first and largest hyperlocal global cellular data network, based on local POPs in dozens of locations worldwide. With the largest global connectivity library of its kind, we provide centrally managed, localized connectivity for any device, anywhere. Global means no limits on where you do business; local means low latency, high performance, and full compliance. Our network has been designed to comply with the emergence of privacy acts, data regulations and roaming restrictions. Best of all, we provide direct access to our network, that lets you control your connectivity as if you were the carrier. Monitor your devices, access real-time network events and usage, switch operators remotely, and troubleshoot failures ahead of time, so your devices never miss a beat.

About Greenfield Partners
Greenfield Partners is an investment firm focused on exceptional early growth stage technology businesses. With a dual presence in Tel Aviv and New York, the Greenfield team fuses deep local Israeli roots and an expansive global network to support entrepreneurs in their quest to build thriving technology companies.

About 83North
83North is a global venture capital firm with over $2.2B under management. The fund invests across all stages, in exceptional entrepreneurs, whose focus is to build global category leading companies.

                        altM plans to use these funds to bring forth an engineering- and manufacturing-driven lens to circularity and sustainability. This marks the first investment from the Omnivore Agritech & Climate Sustainability Fund.  

7 Sep 2023, National: Biomaterials startup altM announced today that it has raised a USD 3.5 million Seed round led by Omnivore. Other investors include Theia Ventures, Thai Wah Ventures, Sanjiv Rangrass, Neha Mudaliar, Maninder Gulati from OYO, Mirik Gogri from Spectrum Impact, and Paula Mariwala from Aureolis Ventures.

altM is Omnivore’s first investment from its third fund, which recently had a first close at USD 150 million. This is also the firm’s fourth investment under its OmniX Bio initiative, which was setup in 2021 to back early-stage agrifood life science startups.  

altM aims to develop and manufacture scalable biomaterials to help large industries reduce their carbon footprints across their supply chains. The startup uses lignocellulosic agricultural residues as their raw material to produce advanced materials as alternatives to unsustainable incumbents. Given its sustainability potential and functional properties, lignocellulosic biomass offers a unique technological appeal to form a family of materials.  

altM, which is based in Bengaluru, was founded in 2022 by Apoorv Garg and Yugal Raj Jain, who met while working at Tesla in the US. Before altM, Apoorv served in supply chain and engineering leadership roles at Prometheus Fuels, Tesla, and Maruti Suzuki. He is an alumnus of the University of California, Berkeley (M.Eng.) and Delhi College of Engineering (B.Tech.). Yugal earlier worked at Tesla in engineering leadership roles, managing several factory and product launches. He is an alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.Eng.) and Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology (B.E.). The team also includes Dr. Harshad Velankar with over 20 years of academic and industrial experience across India, the US, and South Africa. He previously led bioprocess research at HPCL, with prior stints at Praj Industries and Reliance Life Sciences.  

Apoorv Garg, CEO and Co-Founder at altM, said, “The scale-up of a technology from a laboratory bench to commercial production is not a trivial undertaking. Production scale-up is often the death valley for biotech startups. Our focus on go-to-market strategy, execution, and production scale-up will be the differentiator to most endeavors we see in the world of biomaterials today.” 

Mark Kahn, Managing Partner at Omnivore, said, “With Apoorv and Yugal’s background in manufacturing excellence, altM’s entry into industrial alternative materials will hasten the global shift towards sustainability and circularity. Omnivore is very excited to be a part of their journey as we kick off our new fund.”

. . .

About altMaltM aims to develop and manufacture scalable biomaterials to help large industries reduce carbon footprints across their supply chains. The startup uses lignocellulosic agricultural residues as their raw material to produce advanced materials as alternatives to unsustainable incumbents.

About Omnivore
Omnivore is a venture capital firm based in India which funds entrepreneurs building the future of agriculture and food systems.