Mosaic is a

clean energy Clean may refer to: * Cleaning, the process of removing unwanted substances, such as dirt, infectious agents, and other impurities, from an object or environment * Cleanliness, the state of being clean and free from dirt Arts and media Music Al ...

fin-tech company based in

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Founded in 2010, Mosaic created its initial business model using

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

principals to offer loans for commercial solar development projects. After shifting its model in 2014, Mosaic Inc. is now focused on financing residential solar projects by leveraging third party capital partners. Through this model, the company aims to democratize the social and environmental benefits of

History

Early projects

Billy Parish Billy Parish (born September 11, 1981) is an American environmental entrepreneur, author, and activist. He is the co-founder and CEO of Mosaic Inc., a leading financing platform for U.S. residential solar and sustainable home improvements. E ...

, Dan Rosen, Arthur Coulston, and Steve Richmond originally started Mosaic to facilitate crowdfunding of loans for solar development projects. Initially, Mosaic facilitated approximately $1.1 million from 400 private investors. The organization used the investment to finance 12 rooftop solar plants in California,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, and Arizona. In Spring 2012, Mosaic financed five

solar power plants Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic ...

through their zero-interest investment model. 400 people invested over $350,000 in these projects which created 73 kW of solar energy for local community organizations—saving the organizations more than $600,000 on their utility bills while producing over 2,700 job hours for local workers. In September 2012, Mosaic financed its first solar power plant that also offered a return on investment for investors. 51 people raised over $40,000 to finance this 47 kW project for the Youth Employment Partnership in

. With a 6.38% annual return over a 5 year loan period, a $200 investment would yield $272 by the end of the 5 years.

Public launch

On January 7, 2013, Mosaic launched an online platform to let individuals invest or over in specific solar projects while earning a 4.5% annual return. Mosaic provided capital to developers at a 5.5% interest rate, took a 1% fee, and investors could expect a full return of their investment in nine years. Mosaic sold out its first public projects in less than 24 hours, with over 400 investors putting in $313,000 and an average investment of $700. On April 8, 2013, Mosaic announced that it had received approval to sell $100 million worth of solar investments to the California public. As part of the announcement, Mosaic released another project on the

Ronald McDonald House Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) is an independent American nonprofit organization whose stated mission is to create, find, and support programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children. RMHC has a global network of c ...

in San Diego. On March 6, 2014, Mosaic announced that it would begin offering crowdfunded loans to homeowners who would like to install solar.

2015-2021

Mosaic has been financing residential loans for solar systems by leveraging third party capital providers since 2014. Since this shift, Mosaic has continued to grow in the solar financing space, in large part because of this additional raised capital. Mosaic's first major round of capital came in October 2014 with reinsurer PartnerRe, funding $100 million of Mosaic home solar loans. These funds were directed at expanding its lending system. In 2014, it was one of the first companies to pioneer solar lending by combining one of the industry's first 20-year solar loans with fully digital financing. In 2016, Mosaic introduced a battery-only loan. In 2017, the company introduced a 25-year loan and expanded into other sustainable

home improvement The concept of home improvement, home renovation, or remodeling is the process of renovating or making additions to one's home. Home improvement can consist of projects that upgrade an existing home interior (such as electrical and plumbing), ...

verticals. In 2019, Mosaic introduced a product to enable the purchase of solar with other bundled improvements, including roofs, windows, and doors. Over the course of 2016, Mosaic raised $200 million between Germany's

DZ Bank DZ Bank AG () is the second largest bank in Germany by asset size and the central institution for around 800 cooperative banks and their around 8,500 branch offices. Within the German Cooperative Financial Group, which is one of Germany's lar ...

and New York Green Bank and a separate $220 million equity financing in Series C funding through private equity firm

Warburg Pincus Warburg Pincus LLC is a global private equity firm, headquartered in New York, with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil, China, Southeast Asia and India. Warburg has been a private equity investor since 1966. The firm currently has over ...

. In 2020, the company introduced a first-of-its-kind sustainable home improvement loan with up to 18 months of deferred interest and payments followed by repayment terms up to 25 years.

Funding

2012

References

{{Solar power in the United States, state=collapsed Solar energy companies of the United States Solar energy in California Financial services companies based in California Companies based in Oakland, California Science and technology in the San Francisco Bay Area Crowdfunding 2010 establishments in California