In its recently released report on funding and merger acquisition activity for the solar sector in 2016, Mercom Capital Group announced that total global corporate funding in the solar sector, including venture capital/private equity (VC), debt financing, and public market financing, raised by public companies came to $9.1 billion. This was in comparison to $25.3 billion in 2015, which amounts to a 64 percent drop.

Mercom Capital Group CEO and Co-founder, Raj Prabhu, commented, “It was a challenging year for solar companies in terms of fundraising even as demand is expected to reach an all-time high, however, 2017 looks better than expected as lower module prices are expected to boost installation levels.”

Global VC investments came to $1.25 billion in 77 deals in 2016, compared to $1.1 billion in 83 deals in 2015. Silicon Ranch Corporation is proud to have been a bright spot for the industry and among the top VC deals in 2016. Although the article reports Silicon Ranch raised $100 million in 2016, Silicon Ranch actually attracted more than $165 million of new equity capital during the course of the year.

Read full article: Solar Power World Online.