Eneos, NEC Capital Solutions and Sojitz were among the investors to back a $26.3m round for the solar energy system installer.
Japan-based solar energy system provider Looop secured ¥2.83bn ($26.3m) on Tuesday from investors including petroleum refiner Eneos, IT services firm NEC Corporation and diversified trading group Sojitz.
Eneos (formerly known as JXTG Holdings) invested directly while NEC participated through NEC Capital Solutions and Sojitz through the corporate venturing fund it co-runs with Pegasus Tech Ventures, the venture capital firm previously called Fenox Venture Capital.
The corporates were joined by biomass fuel research and development agency Green Power Development Corporation of Japan and six unnamed additional investors.
Founded in 2011, Looop has installed more than 2,500 solar power generation systems across some 4,000 locations. Eneos and Sojitz have formed strategic partnerships with the company in a bid to boost their involvement in the renewable energy value chain.
Looop raised an undisclosed sum from electric utility Chubu Electric Power in September 2018, 18 months after a ¥419m ($3.7m) round featuring mobile banking platform i-Mobile and Golden Asia Fund, a joint venture between Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and the Taiwanese government’s Industrial Technology Investment Corporation.
