The Barcelona-based startup SolarMente has incorporated a new world-renowned strategic international investor: actor Leonardo DiCaprio. His role as an environmental activist has led him to back the Catalan company, which promotes solar energy through an innovative subscription model.
Through this system, the startup "facilitates accessibility to solar energy," according to the renowned actor. Thus, DiCaprio states that his support as an investor represents a "responsible and strategic choice towards a cleaner future," to which SolarMente contributes by actively participating in the development of a sustainable energy future, according to the Oscar winner.
"It is an honor to collaborate with international investors like Leonardo DiCaprio, who shares our vision and trusts in our ability to make a change," said SolarMente CEO and co-founder, Wouter Draijer. The startup based in Poblenou aims to do so through its differential subscription model. This model eliminates the initial financial investment required to enter into photovoltaic self-consumption, replacing it with a monthly subscription with no upfront costs.
Conversations with DiCaprio's team to close the deal culminated in a meeting with the actor himself in Beverly HillsThis innovative system was what caught the attention of DiCaprio, who channels his environmental activism through the foundation that bears his name since he launched it in 1998, at 24 years old and shortly after entering the universal imagination with innumerable mythical scenes from Titanic. As connoisseurs of his work and admirers of DiCaprio, the founders of SolarMente contacted via e-mail with his team proposing collaboration. Two weeks later, they learned that they were interested and, after about three months of conversations, they agreed on the incorporation of the renowned actor as a strategic investor. "It was a match", assures Draijer to The New Barcelona Post.
"Everything fit," adds Draijer, who declares himself an admirer of DiCaprio and his activism. Draijer, 29 years old and an entrepreneur since he was 17, recalls that conversations with DiCaprio's foundation culminated in a meeting with his team and the actor himself in Beverly Hills. In a structured meeting limited to a maximum duration of 45 minutes, Draijer explains that he spoke with the actor about his projects and the environment for nearly three hours: "It was inspiring."
Thus, the pieces, interests, and opportunity fit together and converged to materialize in this agreement, with a fluidity that has characterized SolarMente's trajectory since it was launched in 2020 by Draijer, a Dutch engineer, and Victor Gardrinier, a Canadian expert in innovation and blockchain. The way the two founders met was already coincidental: they met at a startups event in Barcelona, and the main reason they started their first conversation was because they were the two attendees who had the least command of the language of the meeting.
After committing to promoting solar energy, the company's launch was also fortuitous: an acquaintance thought they were already operating as a solar energy company and requested an installation. Faced with the confusion, they decided to start their activity, and bought solar panels, got a van, and learned on their own how to install the panels. "I watched videos to learn how to install them," reveals Draijer.
Although that first installation was far from perfect, both confirmed that the service provided had exceeded the expectations of that unexpected first client, as she had not found another company that would comprehensively facilitate the installation, commissioning, and maintenance of the panels. Thus, they decided to continue working along this line, and spent months "talking to clients, sleeping on the sofa in a windowless room, and eating noodles," recounts the company's CEO.
A year after its first installation, the springboard that propelled SolarMente's activity arrived: it entered the program of the American accelerator Y Combinator, and a few months later raised 1.8 million euros. This financing was joined a year ago by an agreement with the private equity firm GNE Finance, through which SolarMente obtained an additional 50 million euros. With one goal: to reach 10,000 photovoltaic installations in the coming years.
SolarMente has set itself the goal of reaching 10,000 solar installations in the coming yearsThe company, which has so far installed 1,200, aims to reach this figure by expanding territorially as well. From offices in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Alicante, and Malaga, they plan to launch pilot tests also in Italy and Portugal during the next four-month period, advances Draijer. And all through a subscription system through which the user becomes part of an interconnected platform with blockchain.
This monthly SolarMente subscription includes everything necessary to have solar energy, such as installation, maintenance, and insurance. In addition, this subscription allows users to produce, store, and sell their own solar energy. The startup also offers additional services, such as battery systems and electric vehicle charging points. And its latest innovation: a virtual battery service through which the user can store excess solar energy for later use, or choose to share it with other users.
Furthermore, during this year the company plans to launch an energy management system powered by Artificial Intelligence. This technology will automate the purchase, sale, and storage of energy based on market prices, optimizing user savings and consolidating the company's position "as an agent of change in the solar energy sector," according to Gardrinier, now the company's CTO.
In this regard, SolarMente is working on a pioneering project to create a peer-to-peer marketplace for unused solar energy through blockchain technology, predictive modeling, and Internet of Things. All to advance its determination to promote decentralized renewable energy trading, a path to which DiCaprio now joins to facilitate universal access to solar energy.
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