Taylor, a spin-off from Eindhoven University of Technology, has raised an investment of eight million euros. Pension fund ABP is joining as a new investor in the company that develops electronics that make solar panels more cost-effective. Taylor will use the money to improve their product and expand the team at both the Netherlands and abroad.
Taylor is working on the so-called optimizer technology, which allows solar cells to perform up to 20 percent better in some situations ( for example, shade). Basically, this technology enables optimization of small clusters of solar cells. More than 45,000 solar panels with this technology have now been sold in the Netherlands. For production, the company collaborates with partners in Asia.
Taylor was founded by former TU/e students Michiel Roelofs and Rein Westerdijk, also former members of Team Energy. Through this student team, they previously worked on thin solar cells for applications on bicycles. In 2017, the students discovered an electronics patent from Paul Beijer, developer at TU/e. It involved an algorithm that can improve the yield of solar cells by efficiently extracting power from very small solar cells.
Started in Innovation Space
Roelofs and Westerdijk decided to take over the patent in exchange for shares. In Innovation Space, the two developed a concrete product; a prototype solar panel integrating microelectronics. Innovation Space is the TU/e's expertise center for Challenge-Based Learning (CBL), and a place where student teams and start-ups can mature. By the way, both former students have been closely involved in the design of Innovation Space. When the location on the TU/e campus became too small, the company moved to Strijp-S, where Taylor is still based today.
ABP is stepping in as a new investor, alongside existing investors Rubio Impact Ventures and the Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM). Eindhoven University of Technology is also a shareholder.
Roelofs, CEO at Taylor: "We are very proud to now have one of the largest pension funds in the world behind us. It underlines the performance of the team and the trust that customers give us. The foundation has been laid; now we are going to build. We now have the first contracts in Belgium and France and will soon expand to Germany."
