What's the deal? Solarstic, a South Korean lightweight solar company, has raised 3 billion KRW (about $2.1 million) in a Series A round led by Stonebridge Ventures, with IBK Industrial Bank of Korea participating. The startup, spun out of Hyundai Motor Group's in-house venture programme, is run by chief executive officer Park Sung-geun.
What's the endgame? Solarstic wants to break past the limits of conventional solar. Tempered-glass modules are heavy and flat, so ageing buildings need extra structural reinforcement and cars struggle to fit solar cells onto curved bodies. By making panels lighter, the company aims to solve both problems at once.
Why now? Its building-attached product is close to market, with KS certification targeted for the second half of 2026. Solarstic is running proof-of-concept trials with large companies on old factories and lightweight roofs — spaces that heavy glass modules could not reach.
On the vehicle side, Solarstic has four advanced-development projects underway with domestic carmakers and won a CES 2026 Innovation Award in the "vehicle tech and advanced mobility" category. The company plans to use the funding to certify and launch its building product and to build production capacity for automotive parts.
What they're saying: "Solarstic has differentiated technology that can integrate solar cells into exterior parts while keeping a vehicle's curves and design," said Lee Jong-hyun, executive director at Stonebridge Ventures, who led the deal. He called it "a technology platform that can expand beyond passenger and commercial vehicles to PBVs, robots, and unmanned mobility."
The signal: The round sits in roughly the 13th percentile by size — modest even for an early-stage deal. But it points to investor interest in solar that fits where standard panels cannot: heavy old rooftops and the curved surfaces of cars.
Read more: eDaily
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
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