Series A funding led by AE Ventures; Margo de Naray joins Solestial as CEO
TEMPE, Ariz., May 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Solestial, Inc. (“Solestial”), the solar energy company for space, today announced a significant milestone with the closing of its $17M Series A funding round led by AE Ventures. The round welcomed new investors Crosscut Ventures, Zeon Ventures, and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation’s ME Innovation Fund (general partner: Global Brain Corporation), with participation from existing investors Airbus Ventures, General Purpose Venture Capital, Industrious Ventures, Stellar Ventures, and Techstars.
The Series A funding enables Solestial to continue scaling its manufacturing capacity of silicon photovoltaics to 1 megawatt per year, a rate comparable to the estimated annual manufacturing capacity of all US and EU III-V space solar companies combined.
Alongside the raise, Solestial also announced the appointment of Margo de Naray as Chief Executive Officer. De Naray, formerly Senior VP & GM of Space Products and Services at Astra, brings 20 years of extensive commercial and operations management experience in growth and high-tech environments. Founding CEO, Stanislau Herasimenka, will assume the role of Chief Technology Officer to focus on advancing the company’s product roadmap and rapidly scaling operations technology.
“We are thrilled to welcome Margo to lead Solestial into its next chapter,” said Herasimenka. “This transition allows me to continue developing our cutting-edge technology, while Margo brings additional strategic leadership and operational experience to deliver at scale.”
De Naray joins Solestial amid strong momentum. “We’re seeing tremendous market demand, and we are focused on delivering high-quality products,” she said. “We’re hiring, scaling production, and qualifying our technology, which is already deployed on multiple missions in space.”
“Space solar is a critical bottleneck in a rapidly growing industry with an ever-expanding set of missions—from national security to lunar exploration,” said Beckett Jackson, Partner at AE Ventures. “Solestial is uniquely positioned to serve spacecraft manufacturers with mass production of a lightweight, radiation-hardened solution at lower cost and a fraction of the lead time of the current standard.”
The only space solar manufacturer with demonstrated ability to self-heal radiation damage, Solestial offers spacecraft manufacturers the ability to significantly reduce cost and weight without sacrificing energy needs or performance.
“Solestial continues to revolutionize low-cost, lightweight solar power for space. Stan’s continued focus on the technical breadth of Solestial products and Margo’s new addition as a leader of the team are the ingredients to unlock the next phases growth and success,” said Mat Costes, Partner at Airbus Ventures. “We are also thrilled to welcome new investors and see investors from the seed round returning, collectively signifying what we all know—the market applications for this technology are robust, fast accelerating, and Solestial is ready to meet market demand.”
“Our colleagues at Mitsubishi Electric Corporation have been working with Solestial for a number of years to evaluate the potential of Solestial’s technologies,” said Komi Matsubara, Executive Officer (Associate), Vice President, Business Innovation at Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. “We see tremendous potential in Solestial’s technology and are pleased to deepen the relationship and support their development.”
With strong customer demand, Solestial has prioritized scaling production. Since opening its Tempe, Arizona manufacturing facility in 2023, the company has added square footage each year, more than doubled its workforce, and delivered commercial products to dozens of companies.
About Solestial
Solestial exists to deliver abundant energy in space. The company’s breakthrough technology is a silicon solar cell engineered for space to self-cure radiation damage under sunlight at operating temperatures as low as 65°C. Solestial solar cells are packaged in an ultrathin, low-mass, flexible solar power module designed to withstand up to 10 years in a variety of destinations in space. The flexible solar power modules can be produced on automated machines resulting in costs lower than traditional III-V multijunction solar products.
From today’s satellite constellations and research projects to tomorrow’s lunar settlements and services in space, Solestial’s innovative technology represents a paradigm shift for space solar; an affordable, scalable solution to power sustained development. Solestial is a US company manufacturing solar cells and flexible solar power modules in Tempe, Arizona. To learn more, visit the Solestial website and follow Solestial on social media.
About AE Ventures
AE Ventures is the venture capital platform of AE Industrial Partners, a private investment firm with $6.4 billion of assets under management, focused on highly specialized markets including national security, aerospace and industrials. AE Ventures has completed over 50 investments in early-stage companies that benefit from the deep industry knowledge, operating experience, and network of relationships across the sectors where the firm invests.
About Airbus Ventures
Airbus Ventures operates in service of deeptech entrepreneurs who are inspired to design, build, and service complex engineering products capable of unlocking entirely new economies.
About Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
With more than 100 years of experience in providing reliable, high-quality products, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TOKYO: 6503) is a recognized world leader in the manufacture, marketing and sales of electrical and electronic equipment used in information processing and communications, space development and satellite communications, consumer electronics, industrial technology, energy, transportation and building equipment. Mitsubishi Electric enriches society with technology in the spirit of its “Changes for the Better.” The company recorded a revenue of 5,257.9 billion yen (U.S. $34.8 billion*) in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024. For more information, please visit www.MitsubishiElectric.com.
*U.S. dollar amounts are translated from yen at the rate of ¥151 = U.S. $1, the approximate rate on the Tokyo Foreign Exchange Market on March 31, 2024.
SOURCE Solestial, Inc.