Canary Media
Eric Wesoff – Nextracker, a company that makes solar trackers, launched its initial public offering last week and did it the old-fashioned way — by growing revenue and profits in a manufacturing business. Nextracker sold 26.6 million shares of its Class A common stock at $24 apiece, at the higher end of the indicated range, giving the company a valuation of over $3.5 billion and raising $638 million in proceeds.
Solar trackers like Nextracker’s optimize power plant output for utility-scale project developers and builders by enabling solar panels to follow the sun as it moves across the sky. Nextracker’s product design relies on a more distributed architecture that allows the company to more fully take advantage of price drops in motor and control technology.
Founded in 2013 and incubated for a year within solar module maker Solaria, Nextracker raised venture funding, grew spectacularly and was acquired by contract manufacturer Flex for $330 million in 2015. Private equity firm TPG invested $500 million in Nextracker last year, in preparation for it going public as a separate company. Nextracker shipped 15 gigawatts’ worth of trackers in 2022.
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