Andrés Friedman, Co-founder of Solfium: We aim to accelerate the adoption of distributed solar energy in Mexico and Latin America
Andrés Friedman, one of the co-founders of Solfium, detailed their efforts in the Mexican market to accelerate and capitalize on the countrys solar potential to provide renewable energy solutions.
Today, solar energy is becoming a true industrial solution, aligning with global measures to reduce CO2 emissions. Although it remains somewhat exclusive for individuals, several startups are thinking about how to massify and speed up its adoption. This is the case with Solfium; here is their story.
In an interview with Entreprenerd, Andrés Friedman, one of the co-founders of Solfium, detailed their efforts in the Mexican market to “accelerate” and capitalize on the country’s solar potential to provide renewable energy solutions.
“With the name Solfium, we played a bit with words and concepts, but it comes from ‘sol’ and ‘fium’, the onomatopoeia of speed, reflecting our mission to accelerate the adoption of distributed solar energy in Mexico and Latin America, where we saw a significant opportunity and a very low penetration level compared to other parts of the world. That’s the opportunity we are working on, and it’s reflected in our name and business model,” explains Friedman.
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BORN DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
The startup was founded by Juan Osuna, Zach Magnan, and Andrés Friedman,drawing on Juan Osuna’s extensive experience in the solar sector and recognizing the substantial gap between Europe and Latin America in the use of solar energy for both businesses and individuals.
“We ended up incorporating Solfium and launching it right in the middle of the pandemic,” recalls the startup co-founder.
Friedman remembers that it was a significant step for him to leave his job after more than 16 years in the aerospace industry. However, after discussing the idea with Juan Osuna and shaping the business model, his vision became fully dedicated to Solfium.
“I would say that since we launched the initial concept, we have been adapting the business model in terms of implementation, operations, as well as the scope and focus. We started Solfium thinking of a B2C model, bringing solar energy to homes and small businesses,”he said.
He explains, “The original idea was to use a mobile app or its web version to make solar energy very easy and accessible for the average customer who is, by definition, not an expert in photovoltaic matters.”
“Behind this was a logistical model aimed at delivering kits efficiently and cost-competitively through alliances with manufacturers, offering a premium system at a competitive price to the end customer. Through a dashboard and platform, we sought to optimize all interactions at scale between installers, financial partners, manufacturers, and ultimately provide the customer with a solution that, although it sounds cliché, is truly customer-centric, as opposed to the traditional value chain dominated by many small companies pushing the product they had available,” Friedman explains.
MEXICO AND LATIN AMERICA
After observing how solar energy systems operated in Europe for companies, banks, and others compared to individual users, they realized that both Mexico and Latin America still had a lot to improve.
“We thought that through telecoms here in Mexico, which is our launch country—despite Solfium being a company with capital and incorporation, with a holding company in Canada where we started—but Mexico is our launch country, and our focus is Latin America,” explains the co-founder.
“We saw this channel that could be called B2B2C, reaching many customers through a corporate partner, which is of course more efficient and scalable than trying to gain one customer at a time through traditional or digital marketing,” he added.
INVESTMENT
To improve their technology and offer more products and services, Friedman mentions that during 2023, they closed a seed round with XaviAvengers and had previously raised funds from angel investors for the prototype development.
“In the seed round, besides Climate Avengers, we brought in a set of very interesting investors who will add a lot of value. Savia Ventures, which you know is based between Chile and the United States. We have a fund from Silicon Valley, a fund from Canada, a fund from Mexico, and a fund from Norway that is very focused on Climatech. All of them look for companies with global scaling potential,” explains Friedman.
“And in particular, the Norwegian fund is Katapult VC; they also focus on companies with that potential. So, for us, having that backing from a European fund is a very important validation of our technology and business model. Because if in Europe, where they are more advanced in Climatech, they see this potential, then it confirms that we are not just copying and adapting, but we are developing things on our own that we will be able to take to other parts of the world, including Europe,” he adds.
WHAT’S COMING FOR 2024-2025
“We have set our goals more in terms of the volume of solar energy penetration, penetration in this ecosystem of our customers, and total volume and the impact that entails in terms of CO2 reduction tons,” explains Friedman.
Along with this, they expect an international expansion of Solfium with a post-Series A funding round,” Friedman concludes.
PODCAST
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