Solestial - Series A
$17M Raised
The solar game just got a space-grade upgrade, and no, we’re not talking about slapping panels on a roof and calling it innovation. We’re talking about Solestial, Inc., a Tempe-born rebel that started life as Regher Solar in 2013 and just pulled in a sharp $17 million Series A to power the future of satellites, spacecraft, and orbital infrastructure. Let’s just say this isn’t your neighbor’s solar startup, they’re not chasing daylight, they’re engineering it for orbit.
This raise, led by AE Ventures with backup from Crosscut Ventures, Zeon Ventures Inc., and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation’s ME Innovation Fund (repped by Global Brain Corporation), brings Solestial’s total haul to $29M. That’s not loose change for a company that figured out how to make ultra thin, flexible, silicon solar cells that not only survive space, but heal themselves. Radiation damage? These bad boys self-anneal at 65°C, like a tech-powered phoenix rising every orbital cycle. And yes, they’re 90% cheaper to produce than the legacy III-V panels choking budgets across the space economy.
Shoutout to the masterminds: Stan Herasimenka, PhD, former CEO turned CTO, who cut his teeth in solar cell research at Arizona State. His co-founder, Mikhail Reginevich, a silicon savant in his own right, stands as the company’s other CTO (no, that’s not a typo, these guys don’t do traditional org charts, they do results). And with Chief Scientist Alex Fedoseyev onboard after a deep collab on NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s radiation-hardened tech, this squad isn’t talking theory, they’re delivering silicon solutions with generational impact.
Now stepping into the CEO chair is Margo de Naray, bringing 20+ years of scaled execution across Astra, Intel, and Cargill. You don’t bring Margo in unless you’re planning to manufacture at scale, and that’s exactly what they’re doing. Solestial’s 30,000 sq ft facility in Tempe just went live, flanked by a 7,000 sq ft solar lab at ASU. The mission? Hit one megawatt per year in silicon space PV production, matching the entire US and EU III-V output. One site, one team, one serious flex.
Their Gen 2 product? Already clocking 20% efficiency. Customers? Dozens, commercial and government. The market? Hungry, with 100 megawatts of demand projected over the next five years. Solestial isn’t selling panels, they’re selling possibility at scale. And while the space race is crowded, no one else is bringing this combo of cost, speed, and resilience. They’ve got the tech. They’ve got the talent. Now, they’ve got the capital. This isn’t lift-off, it’s orbital dominance in the making.
Let’s be real, solar in space just got a whole lot sunnier.
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