Omnidian Tackles Residential Solar Production Risk with First End-to-End Performance Guarantee for Homeowners, Asset Portfolio Owners

Firm raises $5.1 million in oversubscribed venture funding round to
support growth

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Omnidian, a nationwide provider of comprehensive protection plans for
investments in residential solar systems announced today that it has
launched the industry’s first 3rd-party performance guarantee
for the lifetime of your system. The performance guarantee is available
for owners of individual home solar systems through Omnidian channel
partners, such as lenders and installers. It is also available for
financial institutions, such as funds and third-party owners, that
manage large portfolios of residential solar assets. Omnidian’s
performance guarantee includes 24/7 continuous monitoring, proactive
service alerts and 100-percent covered hardware and software through a
nationwide network of field service professionals, as well as
100-percent guarantee of promised energy or plan owners will be
reimbursed for energy loss.

“Residential PV systems are often backed by narrowly tailored warranties
that cover defective equipment,” said Mark Liffmann, Omnidian’s CEO and
founder. “But at the end of the day, owners of residential solar –
whether it is an asset manager overseeing thousands of systems or an
individual homeowner trying to save on electric bills – want the
assurance that their investment will perform as promised. By shielding
the owners of residential solar systems from the performance risk,
Omnidian is providing the solution that gives owners true peace of mind.”

Omnidian’s proprietary technology integrates with all major third-party
monitoring platforms and quickly identifies underperforming assets
requiring field service dispatch. The firm partners with a nationwide
network of pre-certified field technicians. Omnidian’s 100-percent
performance guarantee transfers solar energy production risk away from
the asset owner. This risk transfer secures the solar energy investment,
enhancing asset security and liberating capital.

The firm’s service offering addresses one of the major pain points in
the growth of residential solar. The residential solar market in the
U.S. has grown substantially over the last decade. But competition and
high customer acquisition costs have resulted in consolidation and exits
by many large installation firms. This has often left distressed
residential solar assets without active management for monitoring system
health and ensuring optimal performance. Further, home owners have not
broadly had the option for performance guarantees when they purchase a
system with loan proceeds or cash.

“Transferring performance risk will allow solar businesses to free up
vital capital for growing their business and give customers the
assurance that their investment will perform as promised without having
to personally monitor their solar system,” Liffmann added.

Venture capital firms also see the market opportunity and value in the
Omnidian team’s industry experience and unique service offering. The
company recently closed an oversubscribed $5.1 million series seed round
led by Congruent Ventures, an early-stage venture firm that backs
companies in the sustainability ecosystem. Other participants include
City Light Capital, Blue Bear Capital, Energy Foundry, Ekistic Ventures,
and Avista Development, a wholly-owned, non-regulated subsidiary of
Avista Corp. (NYSE: AVA).

“Performance guarantees for residential solar energy present a major
opportunity to create value for asset owners and help drive the next
wave of growth in the residential solar market,” said Abe Yokell,
co-founder and managing partner of Congruent Ventures. “We see Omnidian
as best positioned to seize this opportunity due to the extensive
industry experience of the executive team as well as the
state-of-the-art technology they’ve developed in a short period of time.”

The team at Omnidian has managed nearly half of the residential solar
systems installed in the U.S. This industry background has allowed rapid
expansion of their business objective to protect and accelerate capital
investments in the residential solar sector. Today, Omnidian supports
Fortune 1000 clients and other third-party owners of leased solar
portfolios. The firm is currently managing tens of thousands of systems,
having doubled its assets under management in September alone.
Additionally, it is the backup servicing firm to tens of thousands more
systems. Looking longer term, Omnidian sees an opportunity to be the
performance assurance company of choice for the growing Internet of
Things (IoT) market.

“With extensive monitoring capabilities for actionable insight,
residential solar in many ways is the most mature IoT technology in the
market,” Liffmann continued. “As more and more everyday household items
become connected to the Internet, we see an opportunity to use our
technology to monitor the health and performance of those goods, similar
to what we do for solar today. Our vision is to give consumers the
assurance that every device they connect to the Internet is operating as
promised, so that they can focus on the important things.”

About Omnidian:

Omnidian is a nationwide provider of comprehensive protection plans for
investments in residential solar energy systems. It serves both
individual homeowners and financial institutions, such as funds and
third-party owners, that manage large portfolios of residential solar
assets. Omnidian’s lifetime performance guarantee includes 24/7
monitoring, proactive service alerts and 100-percent covered hardware
and software through a nationwide network of field service
professionals, as well as a 100-percent guarantee on promised energy or
plan owners will be reimbursed for energy loss.

Contacts

Antenna Group for Omnidian, Inc.
Jared Blanton, 415-712-1417
jared@antennagroup.com