The total corporate funding in the solar sector is estimated at $6.4 billion during the first quarter this fiscal and a record $1.9 billion was raised by residential and commercial solar funds, according to Mercom Capital Group.

Mercom Capital Group, llc in its report on funding and merger and acquisition (M&A) activity for the solar sector in the first quarter of 2015, finds that the total global corporate funding in the solar sector, including venture capital/ private equity (VC), debt financing, and public market financing almost doubled in the first quarter as compared to $3.4 billion in Q4 2014.

Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group, in a statement said, “There was record fundraising this quarter by residential and commercial solar funds. Project acquisition activity remained strong with yield companies acquiring almost 20 per cent of the total projects.”

VC funding fell to $189 million in 26 deals, compared to $315 million in 16 deals in Q4 2014. Solar downstream companies continued to attract most of the VC funding with $112 million in 12 deals.

Public market financing came to $1.3 billion compared to $1.6 billion in Q4 2014. One IPO of SolarEdge raised $126 million and is listed on Nasdaq.

Debt financing increased substantially this quarter with almost $5 billion, compared to $1.5 billion in Q4 2014.

There were 29 corporate M&A transactions in the solar sector in Q1, compared to 21 transactions in Q4 2014. Solar downstream companies accounted for most of the M&A transactions with 20.

Mercom tracked 190 large-scale project announcements worldwide representing 7 GW.

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