5B
Prefabricated, foldable solar arrays for rapid deployment of utility-scale solar farms.
Website: https://5b.co/
Cover Block
Open sources
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | 5B |
| Tagline | Prefabricated, foldable solar arrays for rapid deployment of utility-scale solar farms. |
| Headquarters | Sydney, Australia [Crunchbase, retrieved 2024] |
| Founded | 2013 [Crunchbase, retrieved 2024] |
| Stage | Series B [PitchBook, 2026] |
| Business model | Hardware + Software |
| Industry | Cleantech / Climatetech |
| Technology | Hardware |
| Geography | Oceania |
| Growth profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding team | Co-Founders (2): Chris McGrath, Eden Tehan [5B, retrieved 2024] |
| Funding label | $50M+ |
| Total disclosed funding | ~$44,800,000 [PV Magazine Australia, December 2020] [PV Tech, December 2022] |
Links
Open sources
- Website: https://5b.co/
- LinkedIn: https://au.linkedin.com/company/5baus
- Product Page: https://5b.co/en/5b-maverick
What an Investor Needs First
PUBLIC 5B builds prefabricated, foldable solar arrays for utility-scale and off-grid projects, and it merits attention because its deployment-speed claim is now matched by visible commercial signals, including a reported order above 100 MW from Zenith Energy in May 2025 after an earlier base of more than 100 deployed sites and more than 60 MW globally by December 2022 [5B, retrieved 2024] [RenewEconomy, May 2025] [PV Tech, December 2022]. Founded in Sydney in 2013 by Chris McGrath and Eden Tehan, both solar engineers and former Infigen Energy colleagues, the company appears to have been built from firsthand experience with the labor intensity and sequencing constraints of large-scale solar construction [5B, retrieved 2024] [PV Magazine Australia, December 2020] [UNSW Newsroom].
The product, the 5B Maverick, is a pre-wired ground-mount solar array that 5B transports and unfolds on site rather than assembling panel-by-panel in the field, a design choice that shifts value from commodity module supply to construction efficiency and land-use productivity [Startup Daily, December 2022] [5B, retrieved 2026]. Public case evidence is directionally supportive: 5B reported deploying a 1.1 MW system at AES Andes Solar II B in Chile in a single day with a 10-person team, while third-party coverage has also cited higher energy yield per unit area than single-axis tracker and fixed-tilt systems, though those performance comparisons still deserve project-level diligence before investors treat them as broadly transferable [Startup Daily, December 2022] [Electrek, June 2024].
The team is technically credible on the problem it is trying to solve. McGrath is listed as co-founder and CEO and previously worked on large-scale wind and solar development at Infigen Energy, while Tehan is also described as a solar engineer and former Infigen colleague; both have ties to UNSW, which matters here because the company is selling an engineering and deployment thesis rather than a pure software abstraction [5B, retrieved 2024] [UNSW Newsroom] [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026].
On financing, 5B has disclosed roughly $44.7 million across a July 2020 Series A and a December 2022 Series B, with AES central to both rounds and bp ventures joining the later financing, which gives the cap table a useful mix of strategic and climate-focused capital even if valuation remains undisclosed in the cited public record [PV Magazine Australia, December 2020] [PV Tech, December 2022] [Crunchbase, retrieved 2024]. The business model reads as hardware plus software around a prefabricated deployment system, and the near-term watch items are straightforward: conversion of large announced orders into operating projects, evidence that manufacturing scale lowers delivered cost as planned, and further proof that speed and energy-density advantages hold outside showcase deployments and strategic partner channels [RenewEconomy, May 2025] [ARENA, June 2025] [5B, retrieved 2026].
Partially corroborated -- Section relies on a mix of company materials and single-source trade coverage, with partial corroboration from PV Tech, Startup Daily, Crunchbase, and founder profiles.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Value |
|---|---|
| Stage | Series B |
| Business Model | Hardware + Software |
| Industry / Vertical | Cleantech / Climatetech |
| Technology Type | Hardware |
| Geography | Oceania |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2) |
| Funding | $50M+ total disclosed label, approximately $44.8M disclosed |
Inside the Company
PUBLIC The company’s shape is clear from a small set of primary records. 5B is a Sydney-headquartered Australian cleantech company founded in 2013 that builds prefabricated, foldable solar arrays under the Maverick brand, with the stated aim of accelerating utility-scale solar deployment through pre-wired ground-mount systems rather than panel manufacturing [Crunchbase] [5B, retrieved 2024]. Crunchbase classifies the business as hardware and software at the Series B stage, while the company website describes the product in plainer terms as prefabricated, pre-wired ground-mount technology for large-scale solar projects [Crunchbase] [5B, retrieved 2024].
The founding story is also relatively consistent across first-party sources. 5B says it was founded by Chris McGrath and Eden Tehan, both solar engineers and former Infigen Energy colleagues, and identifies McGrath as CEO [5B, retrieved 2024]. The company’s public materials place its current operating focus around utility-scale deployment and manufacturing scale-up, which fits the progression from early product development to commercial rollout implied by its funding history and project references on the site [5B, retrieved 2024] [Crunchbase].
In chronological terms, the public record shows a business that spent its first years developing the Maverick platform before raising disclosed institutional capital in 2020 and again in 2022. Crunchbase records an $8 million Series A in July 2020 and a roughly $36.7 million Series B in December 2022, bringing total disclosed funding on that profile to about $44.8 million [Crunchbase]. On the company website, 5B now presents dedicated pages for projects, manufacturing in Australia, and sector-specific use cases including mining and data centres, which indicates a company that has moved from concept validation into broader commercial positioning, even if the legal entity details are not surfaced in the cited sources [5B, retrieved 2024].
Partially corroborated -- Confirmed primarily by Crunchbase and the company website; legal entity details were not established in the cited sources.
Under the Hood
MIXED
The product is fairly easy to state and more interesting once the physical design is clear. 5B sells a prefabricated solar array called the Maverick, built as a pre-wired, foldable ground-mount system that arrives largely assembled and is unfolded on site rather than constructed panel by panel in the field [5B, retrieved 2024] [Startup Daily, December 2022] [5B, retrieved 2026]. The company does not manufacture the photovoltaic modules themselves, according to Startup Daily. Its role is to integrate those panels into transportable frames intended to reduce on-site labor, site work, and installation time for utility-scale and off-grid solar projects [Startup Daily, December 2022] [5B, retrieved 2024].
The public record gives a few concrete parameters for the current product. RenewEconomy reported in May 2025 that a Maverick system contains up to 90 panels and that a typical unit provides about 50 kW of capacity [RenewEconomy, May 2025]. 5B describes the system as prefabricated in a controlled factory environment and says the design is meant to improve construction safety and scheduling predictability, although those operating benefits are mostly articulated in company materials and should be read that way [5B, retrieved 2024]. Third-party coverage offers some external support for the speed claim: 5B reported deploying a 1.1 MW system at AES's Andes Solar II B facility in Chile in a single day with a team of 10, and Mining Monthly separately described the arrays as deployable up to 10 times faster than traditional systems [Startup Daily, December 2022] [Mining Monthly, retrieved 2026].
The harder part of the technology case is whether faster deployment also translates into better project economics on constrained sites. Public sources suggest that is the intended wedge. Electrek reported the Maverick can deliver 98% more energy yield per unit area than single-axis tracker systems and 87% more than fixed-tilt PV arrays, while ARENA said the product can lower installed capital cost and improve land-use efficiency on challenging sites [Electrek, June 2024] [ARENA, retrieved 2026] [ARENA, June 2025]. Those are meaningful claims if they hold across project types, but most detailed performance language still traces back to company or program materials rather than broad independent field data. A narrower, more credible signal is the reported work with SunSolve, where 5B said it identified two separate 1% to 2% yield uplifts, suggesting the company is still tuning balance-of-system performance rather than treating the mechanical format as the whole story [SunSolve, retrieved 2026].
Partially corroborated -- Based on a mix of company materials and independent coverage from Startup Daily, RenewEconomy, Electrek, Mining Monthly, and ARENA; several performance claims remain only partially corroborated.
Market Research
PUBLIC
The market matters now because utility-scale solar demand is colliding with harder project economics, labor constraints, and land-use pressure, which is precisely where 5B’s prefabricated deployment model claims an advantage [RenewEconomy, May 2025] [ARENA, June 2025].
The available public record does not support a clean TAM, SAM, or SOM for 5B’s addressable market, and this section stays inside that limit. What can be established is the problem definition: 5B is selling into utility-scale solar developers, independent power producers, energy companies, and off-grid power operators that value faster deployment and lower on-site labor intensity [PV Magazine, December 2022] [RenewEconomy, May 2025]. That places the company in an addressable slice of the broader ground-mount solar buildout market, with an adjacent foothold in remote and industrial power applications where construction logistics are unusually costly or schedule-sensitive [RenewEconomy, May 2025] [ARENA, June 2025].
Demand signals in the cited research are concrete rather than theoretical. By December 2022, 5B said its systems had been deployed at more than 100 sites globally, representing more than 60 MW of capacity, and that installed base was followed by a reported order of more than 100 MW from Zenith Energy in May 2025 [PV Tech, December 2022] [RenewEconomy, May 2025]. The sequence matters more than the absolute figures: public evidence suggests buyer interest has moved from pilot-style deployments toward larger procurement decisions, particularly where speed, workforce availability, and site complexity influence project economics [Startup Daily, December 2022] [RenewEconomy, May 2025].
The substitute set is also clear from the product claims that recur across public sources. 5B is not competing with solar modules themselves; it is competing with conventional utility-scale installation approaches such as fixed-tilt structures and single-axis tracker layouts, while also reaching into adjacent markets such as remote mining power, data centres, and other off-grid or constrained-footprint energy projects [Startup Daily, December 2022] [5B, retrieved 2024]. Electrek, citing the company’s technology claims, reported that Maverick can deliver 98% more energy yield per unit area than single-axis tracker systems and 87% more than fixed-tilt PV array systems, which frames the commercial argument around land productivity as much as installation speed [Electrek, June 2024]. Those figures are useful as market-positioning evidence, though they should still be treated as product-performance claims rather than independent market benchmarks [Electrek, June 2024].
Regulatory and macro forces in the record point in the same direction. ARENA described Maverick as offering customers a more competitive product for increasing yield per land area, developing solar farms on challenging sites, and reducing project risk through safety, quality, reliability, and scheduling benefits [ARENA, June 2025]. RenewEconomy separately reported that 5B received A$46 million from ARENA to scale production at its Adelaide facility, tying public-sector support directly to domestic manufacturing capacity and lower system costs [RenewEconomy, May 2025]. In practical terms, the policy backdrop appears to favor technologies that compress construction time, reduce field labor dependence, and make more difficult project sites financeable, even if the public sources do not quantify the full market size for that niche [ARENA, June 2025] [RenewEconomy, May 2025].
| Cited market signals | Figure | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment footprint by Dec. 2022 | More than 100 sites globally | Early evidence of cross-market adoption beyond a single flagship project [PV Tech, December 2022] |
| Deployment footprint by Dec. 2022 | More than 60 MW | Commercial usage existed before the later large-order announcements [PV Tech, December 2022] |
| Largest reported order by May 2025 | More than 100 MW | Procurement sizes appear to be scaling, especially in off-grid power applications [RenewEconomy, May 2025] |
| Aurora initial-stage purchase order | 70 MW | Continued relevance in large Australian project development as of October 2026 [PV Magazine, October 2026] |
The table does not size the entire market, but it does show a progression from distributed deployments to larger contracted volumes. For investors, that is the more relevant market signal in the current evidence set, because it suggests the category may be expanding from proof-of-concept buying toward programmatic procurement.
Partially corroborated -- Market size is not independently quantified in the cited public sources; section conclusions rely on named-publication reporting from PV Tech, RenewEconomy, PV Magazine, Startup Daily, Electrek, and ARENA, with some performance framing still tied to company-originated claims.
Competition and Substitutes
MIXED 5B sits in a narrower lane than most solar hardware vendors: it is competing less on module chemistry and more on how quickly utility and off-grid developers can get steel, wiring, and panels into the ground with lower site labor intensity [5B, retrieved 2024] [Startup Daily, December 2022].
The public record here is unusually thin on named direct competitors, so the clearest map is by substitute category rather than by company roster. At one end are incumbent utility-scale EPC workflows built around conventional fixed-tilt and single-axis tracker systems, which remain the baseline alternatives against which 5B frames speed, yield-per-hectare, and site-safety claims [5B, retrieved 2024] [Electrek, June 2024]. Adjacent substitutes include standard ground-mount suppliers and tracker-led project designs that may be slower to install but are familiar to developers, lenders, and construction contractors. Within off-grid and mining applications, the relevant comparison is often not another foldable-array specialist but any solar configuration that can be transported to remote sites and commissioned with limited labor, which helps explain why coverage has emphasized 5B's fit for difficult or labor-constrained deployments rather than mass-market residential or rooftop segments [PV Magazine, December 2022] [RenewEconomy, May 2025].
5B's edge today appears to rest on product architecture plus channel validation, not on a proprietary module supply chain. The company does not manufacture panels; it integrates them into pre-wired, foldable frames, which means its differentiation is the deployment system itself and the project economics that follow from it [Startup Daily, December 2022]. That proposition has some real external validation: AES led the 2020 Series A and again backed the 2022 Series B, and 5B reported deployments at AES's Andes Solar II B facility in Chile, including a 1.1 MW installation completed in a single day with a 10-person team [PV Magazine Australia, December 2020] [PV Tech, December 2022] [Startup Daily, December 2022]. If durable, that edge comes from bankable field performance and repeat enterprise relationships. If perishable, it is because installation-speed advantages can narrow if incumbent EPCs adapt processes or if larger balance-sheet players package similar prefabrication concepts through established procurement channels.
The company is most exposed where developer priorities tilt back toward standardization, module procurement scale, and financing familiarity. Public sources support strong claims around rapid deployment and land-use efficiency, but many of the most sweeping performance comparisons still trace back to company materials or secondary coverage repeating company data, which matters in a market where technical diligence can be conservative [5B, retrieved 2024] [Mining Monthly] [Electrek, June 2024]. 5B also does not appear, from the supplied record, to control a dominant downstream channel such as utility procurement, EPC distribution, or module manufacturing. That leaves it dependent on proving that the Maverick format is not merely faster in demonstrations, but preferable at portfolio scale across a range of geographies and project designs.
The most plausible 18-month scenario is a split market rather than a single-format winner. AES looks like the clearest winner if strategic customers continue to value deployment speed and remote-site execution, because it already has investment exposure and operating familiarity with the product in multiple markets [Bloomberg, July 2020] [Startup Daily, December 2022]. Conventional tracker and ground-mount approaches are the likely winners if utility buyers prioritize the lowest-per-watt cost under familiar engineering and financing assumptions. By the same logic, 5B is the most plausible loser if large orders such as the reported more than 100 MW Zenith Energy deal do not translate into repeatable, referenceable fleet deployments, because its commercial story relies on moving from noteworthy projects to standard project selection behavior [RenewEconomy, May 2025].
Opportunity
PUBLIC
The prize here is not another solar component supplier, but a shot at becoming a default deployment layer for parts of the utility and off-grid solar buildout where labor, schedule, and land intensity are the binding constraints.[5B, retrieved 2024] [PV Tech, December 2022]
The headline opportunity is straightforward. If 5B can make prefabricated solar arrays a repeatable standard rather than a project-specific exception, it could occupy a valuable position between panel manufacturers and project developers: not the cell maker, but the system architecture that lets developers commission capacity faster, on more constrained sites, with less field labor.[Startup Daily, December 2022] [ARENA, June 2025] That outcome is reachable, not merely theoretical, because the public record already shows both technical proof points and commercial validation. By December 2022, 5B said its systems had been deployed at more than 100 sites globally representing more than 60 MW, and AES had already used the product in Chile, where 5B reported installing a 1.1 MW system in a single day with a team of 10.[PV Tech, December 2022] [Startup Daily, December 2022] The more recent order flow matters as well: a reported order of more than 100 MW from Zenith Energy in May 2025 and a 70 MW purchase order tied to the Aurora Energy Precinct in October 2026 suggest the company is at least being considered for deployments measured in tens to hundreds of megawatts, which is the scale at which this stops looking like a niche construction aid and starts looking like infrastructure.[RenewEconomy, May 2025] [PV Magazine, October 2026]
The growth paths are visible in public sources, even if the eventual mix remains uncertain.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Utility deployment standard | 5B becomes a preferred architecture for developers that value faster construction and lower on-site complexity, especially on schedule-sensitive projects. | Repeat business and strategic alignment from AES, which led the Series A and participated again in the Series B.[PV Magazine Australia, December 2020] [PV Tech, December 2022] | AES invested strategically and used the product in Chile, while 5B reported deployments at more than 100 sites by December 2022.[Bloomberg, July 2020] [Startup Daily, December 2022] [PV Tech, December 2022] |
| Off-grid and remote power specialist | 5B becomes a go-to system for mining, remote industrial loads, and off-grid operators where speed, logistics, and site conditions matter more than lowest upfront module-rack cost. | The reported more than 100 MW Zenith Energy order in 2025.[RenewEconomy, May 2025] | Public materials already position Maverick for difficult sites and reduced on-site civil work, and Zenith's order is the clearest public signal that this use case can scale.[ARENA, June 2025] [5B, retrieved 2026] [RenewEconomy, May 2025] |
| High-density solar on constrained land | 5B wins projects where energy yield per hectare is economically decisive, making the product a fit for land-constrained utility builds and industrial campuses. | Independent third-party coverage highlighting materially higher energy yield per unit area versus tracker and fixed-tilt systems.[Electrek, June 2024] | Electrek cited up to 98% more energy yield per unit area than single-axis trackers and 87% more than fixed-tilt systems, while 5B's own positioning centers on energy density.[Electrek, June 2024] [5B, retrieved 2026] |
What compounding looks like is less about consumer-style network effects and more about manufacturing learning, deployment proof, and channel credibility. Each successful project should improve the case for the next one in three ways. First, referenceability matters in infrastructure. A strategic investor such as AES is not just a source of capital, but a validation path into utility procurement conversations, and repeat backing through multiple rounds suggests the relationship persisted beyond pilot stage.[Bloomberg, July 2020] [PV Tech, December 2022] Second, higher deployment volume can tighten the manufacturing and installation playbook. 5B said in May 2025 that costs could fall 25% after its first Sunshot grant, which, if realized, would strengthen the economic case at the same time that larger orders improve factory utilization.[RenewEconomy, May 2025] Third, the product appears to benefit from iterative engineering rather than static hardware economics. SunSolve reported two separate 1% to 2% yield uplifts, a small number in isolation but meaningful if replicated across large project fleets because it raises the chance that performance gains can be layered on top of deployment-speed advantages.[SunSolve, retrieved 2026]
The size of the win is best framed through installed capacity pathways rather than unsupported valuation shorthand. Public sources support a company that had more than 60 MW deployed by December 2022, then reported orders of more than 100 MW and 70 MW in later years.[PV Tech, December 2022] [RenewEconomy, May 2025] [PV Magazine, October 2026] If that progression reflects a durable move from pilot-scale and sub-10 MW jobs into repeat utility and off-grid programs, 5B could plausibly grow into a system supplier measured in annual hundreds of megawatts rather than isolated projects. On that scenario, not a forecast, the business would resemble a strategically important balance-of-system and deployment platform sitting inside a global solar capex stream that runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars annually, according to IEA reporting on clean energy investment.[IEA, June 2024] The key point is narrower than a top-down TAM claim: if even a small share of future solar builds increasingly values speed, labor reduction, and land efficiency, 5B does not need to dominate panel manufacturing to become a meaningful infrastructure company. It needs to become the trusted deployment format for the projects where those constraints are expensive enough to change buyer behavior.[ARENA, June 2025] [Startup Daily, December 2022]
Partially corroborated -- Section relies on a mix of independent trade press, Bloomberg, and company or partner materials; several core upside claims remain supported by single-source deployment and performance reporting.
Sources
Open sources
[Crunchbase, retrieved 2024] 5B Australia - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/5b-4844
[PitchBook, 2026] 5B (Energy Infrastructure) 2026 Company Profile: Valuation, Funding & Investors | https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/268631-38
[5B, retrieved 2024] Home | 5B | https://5b.co/
[PV Magazine Australia, December 2020] Weekend read: Maverick not only by name | https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2020/12/19/weekend-read-maverick-not-only-by-name/
[PV Tech, December 2022] bp backs rapid deployment solar technology with A$20 million investment | https://www.pv-tech.org/bp-backs-rapid-deployment-solar-technology-with-a20-million-investment/
[RenewEconomy, May 2025] Australian Maverick solar innovator 5B says costs to fall 25 pct after landing first Sunshot grant | https://reneweconomy.com.au/australian-maverick-solar-innovator-5b-says-costs-to-fall-25-pct-after-landing-first-sunshot-grant/
[UNSW Newsroom, retrieved 2026] UNSW Newsroom | https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom
[Startup Daily, December 2022] BP backs Sydney solar startup 5B in $55 million Series B | https://www.startupdaily.net/topic/funding/bp-backs-sydney-solar-startup-5b-in-55-million-series-b/
[5B, retrieved 2026] 5B Maverick | 5B | https://5b.co/en/5b-maverick
[Electrek, June 2024] Electrek | https://electrek.co/
[LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] Eden Tehan - 5B | LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/eden-tehan/
[ARENA, June 2025] Australian Renewable Energy Agency | https://arena.gov.au/
[ARENA, retrieved 2026] Australian Renewable Energy Agency | https://arena.gov.au/
[PV Magazine, December 2022] Modular solar startup secures backing of bp ventures | https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/12/15/modular-solar-startup-secures-backing-of-bp-ventures/
[PV Magazine, October 2026] 5B pre-fab solar tech gets nod for 1414 Degrees Aurora Energy Precinct | http://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/10/26/5b-pre-fab-solar-tech-gets-nod-for-1414-degrees-aurora-energy-precinct/
[Mining Monthly, retrieved 2026] Mining Monthly | https://www.miningmonthly.com/
[SunSolve, retrieved 2026] SunSolve | https://www.sunsolvepv.com/
[Bloomberg, July 2020] AES Acquires 25% Stake in Maker of Pre-Fabricated Solar Arrays | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-30/aes-invests-in-solar-design-that-cuts-installation-time-in-half/
Articles about 5B
- A Foldable Solar Array Now Anchors 5B's 100 MW Order Book — The Australian startup's foldable, pre-wired frames aim to slash the time and labor of building utility-scale solar plants.