sonnen secures $85 million in growth capital and gains new partners in creating the future of energy

WILDPOLDSRIED, Germany, Oct. 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The sonnen Group, the market leader in intelligent battery storage in Europe, successfully completed a new financing round with a total equity amount of $85 million USD.

The financing enables sonnen to continue its dynamic growth as an energy innovator in Germany and deepen its expansion into international markets. This continued growth includes the development of new products such as the energy sharing platform known as the sonnenCommunity and the further expansion of its business in the United States, Australia, UK and Italy.

Through this investment two new partners are backing the growing energy services company, joining existing investors including eCAPITAL, MVP, SET Ventures, Inven Capital and GE Ventures. The international technology company Envision Energy, and Thomas Putter, former CEO and ex-Chairman of Allianz Capital Partners and a leading investor in renewable energy technology, gain a minority stake in sonnen.

In addition to its high-quality wind turbines, Envision Energy also develops world's leading intelligent software for the orchestration of the future energy world, which consists of a variety of decentralized energy sources and devices. Envision is represented worldwide and maintains numerous research and development centers in Asia, Europe and the United States, including Silicon Valley, Houston, Texas and Boulder, Colorado.

"The future of energy is clean, decentralized and digital. With its sonnenCommunity platform and smart sonnenBatterie technology, sonnen already demonstrates how our energy infrastructure will look tomorrow. We were very impressed by their proven capabilities, their rapid growth and the high level of continuing innovation in the energy space. We want to support sonnen's vision of the future of energy and make this future a reality together," says Lei Zhang, CEO of Envision Energy.

"We want to become the energy supplier of the future. Fast growth and leadership in innovation are the keys to reaching this goal," says Christoph Ostermann, CEO of sonnen Group. "With Envision Energy, we have gained a strategic investor who shares our vision, supplements our technology and has a strong presence in both the U.S. and Asian markets."

sonnen develops and manufactures the sonnenBatterie smart energy management systems in Germany and in San José, California. Through its sonnenCommunity, homeowners throughout Germany can produce, store and share their own electricity. sonnen's latest development, the sonnenFlat, is the next step in virtual power plants enabling thousands of sonnenBatteries to be aggregated into one large storage pool that provides balancing energy for the powergrid in Germany.

About Envision Energy
Envision Energy (www.envision-energy.com) is one of the world's largest smart energy management companies and among the eight largest turbine companies in the world with more than 7.5 GW of Envision smart wind turbines in operation. Envision's Energy OS platform is used to manage more than 50 GW of renewable energy assets, including charging stations and energy consumption devices worldwide. Envision has regional offices across Asia, Europe, North and South America and has established global R&D and engineering centers in Denmark, Germany and the United States.

About sonnen
At sonnen, we believe clean, affordable, and reliable energy for all is one of the greatest challenges of our time. With 15,000 sonnenBatterie systems installed worldwide, sonnen Group is a proven global leader in intelligent energy management solutions that provide greater energy control for residential and commercial customers through increased solar self-consumption, reduced peak energy usage and reliable backup power during outages – contributing to a cleaner and more reliable energy future. sonnen has won several awards for its energy innovations and sonnenBatterie products, including MIT's Technology Review's 50 Smartest Companies 2016, Cleantech Global 100 for 2015 and 2016, Greentech Media's 2016 Grid Edge Award for innovation, and Cleantech's 2015 Company of the Year Award in both Israel and Europe. Learn more at https://www.sonnen-batterie.com/ or follow us on Twitter.

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