Facing severe financial difficulties, South African major solar provider Hohm Energy, a solar power firm, has halted operations and entered business rescue.
Struggling to manage its debt, the company has laid off an unspecified number of employees. A business rescue practitioner has been appointed to evaluate the situation and chart a path forward.
Franc Gray, CEO of Hohm Energy’s parent company, Spark Energy Services, revealed to TechCabal that the company has ceased operations as it seeks legal guidance on its next steps.
Gray acknowledged that Hohm Energy is currently not active in the market.
“We are working with legal counsel to get a better understanding of a way forward, but Hohm is currently not trading,” Franc Gray, CEO of Hohm’s parent company, Spark Energy Services, told TechCabal.
According to sources, CEO Tim Ohlsen departed the company last week. Following his resignation, Managing Director Ryan Steytler assumed leadership and chose to place the business into rescue proceedings. Gray claims that Steytler made this decision independently, disregarding shareholder recommendations.
History of Hohm Energy
Back in 2013, Hohm Energy started a solar installation and engineering subsidiary in South Africa.
“We quickly realised the scaling limitations of a solar engineering business and we set out to build a scaling tool to help our own business grow.
“We took our industry know-how and paired it with software development expertise to generate bespoke client solar proposals and automate workflows to speed up the solar sales and deployment journey.
“We realised our mission was greater than helping our own solar business scale, in favour of helping the solar industry. This lead to us rebuilding the source code in 2020 and spinning out of Hohm in 2021 as stand alone climate-tech startup.
“We are now in pursuit of building a global solar network to accelerate the renewable energy transition.”
Hohm Energy raises funds
In February, Hohm Energy announced that it has secured an impressive $8 million in its final Seed round, the largest of its kind for a tech startup in the country.
Led by E3 Capital and 4DX Ventures, the round also drew new investors such as Breega, E4E Africa, TO.org, and others.
With this funding, Hohm Energy aimed to accelerate the adoption of rooftop solar by enhancing its climate fintech strategy, advancing tech and product innovation, and expanding solar installer skills development to make solar energy more accessible and affordable across the region.
