Sunrun was co-founded in January 2007 by Lynn Jurich, Ed Fenster, and Nat Kreamer with a business model in which it offered customers either a lease or a Power Purchase Agreement business model whereby homeowners paid for electricity usage but did not buy solar panels outright, reducing the initial capital outlay required by the homeowner. Sunrun is responsible for installation, maintenance, monitoring and repairs. The company raised $12 million in venture capital funding from a group of investors including Foundation Capital in June 2008. In 2009, Sunrun closed a Series B round of funding for $18 million led by Accel Partners and joined by Foundation Capital. The company also received an additional commitment of $90 million in tax equity from U.S. Bancorp in 2009, following the $105 million in project financing from the bank in 2008. In June 2010, Sunrun struck a deal with PG&E for $100 million. Following the deal, the company announced $55 million in fresh capital from Sequoia Capital. In May 2014, the company raised $150 million. In 2015 Sunrun went public at $14 per share, with an initial market capitalization of $1.36 billion and launched its BrightBox product in the state of Hawaii. The next year it started selling BrightBox in California. In January 2017, Sunrun announced a strategic partnership with National Grid plc. In 2017, an installer working for Sunrun in New York fell off the roof and died. The Wall Street Journal reported in May 2017 that the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating Sunrun and SolarCity, with regard to whether they adequately disclosed canceled contracts, a metric that the paper said is used by investors to gauge how well such companies are performing. In 2017, cancellations of contracts with Sunrun were around 40%. In July 2018, Sunrun expanded their solar and battery service to the island of Puerto Rico. With operations in 23 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, Sunrun became the largest solar, storage and energy services companyin America, surpassing Solar City. In 2018, Sunrun deployed 1575 MWp in new solar assets, growing from 1202 in 2017. In July 2020, Sunrun acquired Vivint Solar for $3.2 billion.
