Hercules Capital, Inc., a specialty financing provider to innovative venture growth stage companies backed by leading venture capital firms, provided senior debt financing to support the merger of Solar Spectrum, a leader in the global solar market, with Horizon Solar Power, of Temecula, California.

Since 2008, Horizon Solar has served as a premier designer and installer of residential and commercial solar systems in Southern California. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“We are very pleased to see Solar Spectrum’s management team, along with its new lead investor Northern Pacific Group, take quick, decisive, action since emerging from bankruptcy,” said Manuel Henriquez chairman and CEO of Hercules Capital. “The combination of the two companies will create one of the nation’s largest residential solar providers. In addition, Horizon Solar Power, led by its distinguished CEO Frank Kneller, has achieved an outstanding record of accomplishments and has operated profitability for the past several years. Its combination with Sungevity’s best-in-class technology and brand, should create one of the nation’s fastest growing and profitable residential solar providers.”

The merger of Solar Spectrum and Horizon Solar will create the second largest provider of residential solar systems in California and the fourth largest in the United States. Residential solar power generation is a $9 billion annual industry with a total addressable market in the United States of $800 billion. Solar Spectrum and Horizon Solar will operate under the Sungevity brand.

The merger was orchestrated by Solar Spectrum’s shareholders led by Northern Pacific Group which is based in Wayzata, Minnesota. The transaction closed on August 17, 2017. Following the transaction, Solar Spectrum’s shareholder group includes Northern Pacific Group, International, Hercules Capital, DGB Investments, Bindley Capital and the management teams of Horizon Solar and Solar Spectrum.