Planted Solar has closed a $20 million Series A funding round, co-led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Khosla Ventures, with strategic support from the U.S. Department of Energy. Backed by this capital and technical awards, Planted is moving from prototype to scale, bringing its automated, terrain-following solar installation technology to utility-scale deployments.

Founded in 2020 and led by CEO Eric Brown, Planted Solar’s mission is to redefine how solar projects are built - lowering land use, reducing costs, and empowering developers to site generation projects on challenging terrain without heavy civil engineering.

Reinventing Solar with Terrain-Following Arrays and Construction Robots

Planted’s platform combines custom software, high-density arrays that tolerate slopes up to 27%, and robotic assembly that moves steel support piles quickly into place. The result? A solar megawatt installed on just two acres - about half the land footprint of traditional fixed-tilt or tracker systems.

This design reduces balance-of-system costs by approximately 50%, avoids expensive site grading, and triples deployment throughput. Projects like the 11 MW community solar plan in Chicago showcase the company’s ability to couple land stewardship with high yield and faster construction.

Most solar startups emphasize panel efficiency or policy arbitrage. Planted did something more structural: they optimized where and how solar is built. By considering land topology, installation speed, and soil impact from day one, they created a system that isn’t just better - it’s fundamentally more scalable.

That insight shows how platform startups win: by finding chokepoints in the physical network - here, construction time, land disturbance, and civil risk - and turning them into strategic assets. Planted’s solution isn’t at the panel level; it’s at the terrain level. The software, hardware, and robotics are woven into site geology and developer constraints. Founders building complex tech stacks should ask: can we automate upstream friction that others ignore because it’s messy? Planted did not automate a nice-to-have - they engineered a necessary layer of infrastructure.

Experience-Driven Scaling and Ecosystem Momentum

Planted’s deployment roadmap is already visible in the field. The startup has signed contracts for over 11 MW of solar in partnership with Cultivate Power, bringing their platforms near major interconnection nodes previously considered inaccessible due to terrain or land cost.

Their battery-enabled, terrain-adaptive arrays integrate with existing module formats and deliver consistent energy density by optimizing DC:AC inverter loading ratios and layout density. This approach ensures developers get twice the energy per acre, reduced structural cost, and minimal grading impact.

Capitalizing on a Terra-Tech Opportunity

The new funding allows Planted Solar to accelerate manufacturing of its robotic array drivers, expand column supply chains, and scale software features like terrain analysis and automated permitting material generation. The team is also hiring across product, field engineering, and project operations to support 50 MW+ of deployments over the next 18 months.

By integrating robotics and site-specific design software, Planted is setting up for vertical expansion - selling not only physical deployment tools but also data-driven layout intelligence and build optimization.

Investor Confidence in a Renewables Inflection Point

Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Khosla Ventures made this round possible because they see Planted Solar as more than a lean panel company - they see infrastructure for a solar-terawatt future. As land near transmission becomes scarce and permitting complexity rises, solutions that slash land footprint and mechanical risk become essential. This funding is both a bet on Planted’s technology and the rising need for site-optimized, modular solar infrastructure.

With the U.S. Department of Energy signal through financial awards, the startup is also benefitting from both strategic visibility and policy alignment that few companies at Series A experience.

Leadership Anchored in Domain Credibility

CEO Eric Brown and his founding team bring deep experience in electrical engineering, solar project development, and robotics systems. That technical depth is visible in the product design - arrays that conform to grade, weather-proof foundations, and lightweight installation hardware that cuts time on site.

None of this is accidental: the team built the system from thousands of manual deployment hours, identifying friction points that robotics now eliminate. That practical mindset, combined with venture-level scaling strategy, puts them in a strong position to lead solar infrastructure innovation.

The Road Ahead: Scaling Deployment Without Scaling Cost

Planted sees its platform as the template for a new wave of solar growth - one that doesn’t require flat land or long permitting. They plan to build thousands of acres of arrays across the U.S. and begin supply partnerships for integrated robotics and pile delivery systems.

Upcoming milestones include further robot automation, improved terrain analytics, AI-assisted yield modeling, and deeper integration with EPC partners. They’re also exploring live demonstration sites for the upcoming utility-scale build-out.

By merging deep engineering with overlooked construction workflows, Planted Solar isn’t just building solar sites - they’re building the infrastructure to accelerate climate-positive deployment at planetary scale.