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Climate-KIC solar start-up finds first customer

Solease, winner of the Dutch edition of the Climate-KIC Venture Competition in 2012, has recently signed a contract with its first customer Utrecht University.

The deal allows university employees to rent 12 solar panels for their homes for €54 a month without having to make heavy investments. Employees can save up to 10% immediately on their energy bill. Solease takes care of installing the panels, as well as their monitoring and maintenance.

CEO Pierre Vermeulen explains:

A lease construction like this one is an ideal way to translate long term sustainable benefits into an added value in the present. A monthly lease amount will lead to transparency to the end customer as to what the real cost and benefit of photovoltaic solar energy is.

Solease pitched at last year’s Climate-KIC Innovation Festival in Bologna and is one of the fastest growing Dutch start-ups with support from Climate-KIC.“I am very pleased with the fast growth of this promising company and that the support from Climate-KIC is so well appreciated by Pierre and his team”, says Frans Nauta, Entrepreneurship Lead for Climate-KIC the Netherlands.

Press attention

The press release on the collaboration between Solease and Utrecht University attracted massive attention in the Dutch media. Following the press release, various media paid attention to this event, among which Financieel Dagblad, NuZakelijk Duurzaam and RTV Utrecht. The presentation was also a great success, visited by both university employees and other potential investors.

Click here to read Climate-KIC's interview with Pierre Vermeulen, published earlier this year.