This startup’s energy innovation incentivizes homeowners to install solar powers by offering them a stake in the revenues generated through the company’s battery storage network that provides energy during high peak hours.
Daylight Energy, a decentralized energy company focusing on distributed power, has raised $75 million to expand its crypto-powered network that finances and rewards clean energy adoption.
Rising energy demand from data centers and electric vehicles has created a gap that existing technologies like distributed solar and battery storage have not fully addressed. Daylight aims to fill this need.
Daylight’s decentralized network uses blockchain technology to align incentives among homeowners, installers, and investors. This approach rewards participation and streamlines financing.
The Model
Homeowners pay a predictable monthly subscription, typically below utility rates, as Daylight shares revenue with them. This lowers energy costs and encourages ongoing participation.
Daylight dispatches stored energy from its battery network to the centralized grid during peak demand and power outages, when energy markets pay premium rates for speed and reliability.
The Daylight Network aggregates thousands of batteries to trade with the grid. Through its subscription model, homeowners install solar panels and battery storage with no upfront cost, gaining greater energy independence and predictable pricing.
Customers earn Sun Points for engaging with and expanding the network. These points are a precursor to a future token, which may offer direct participation in the network’s economics and support a community-driven energy model.
As federal and state tax credits for renewable energy phase out, Daylight’s crypto-based rewards provide a new incentive to sustain adoption. This model reduces costs and redefines energy participation as ownership.
Timely Funding Round
The round includes $15 million in equity financing led by Framework Ventures with participation from a16z crypto, Lerer Hippeau, M13, Room40 Ventures, EV3, Crucible Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and Not Boring Capital.
An additional $60 million project development facility was led by Turtle Hill Capital, bringing Daylight’s total funding to $75 million.
Crypto’s Role in Turning Homeowners into Shareholders
“To build the largest decentralized energy network in the world, you need to incentivize behavior change and catalyze a huge amount of capital behind it,” said Jason Badeaux, CEO of Daylight Energy. “Crypto is uniquely good at doing those two things—it aligns incentives, drives down costs, and rebuilds this industry on a foundation of transparency, ownership, and shared economic upside.”
Decentralized Finance Meets Energy Infrastructure
Daylight’s next phase centers on DayFi, a decentralized yield protocol that links energy infrastructure to the decentralized finance ecosystem.
Framework Ventures, the lead investor in Daylight’s equity round, sees enormous potential in this convergence.
“We believe Daylight has a credible path to becoming the financing layer for distributed energy,” said Vance Spencer, Co-Founder of Framework Ventures. “DeFi markets are searching for new, sustainable sources of on-chain yield, and DayFi provides a transparent way to access returns backed by real electricity revenues. As AI accelerates global power demand and energy costs rise, Daylight is uniquely positioned to meet this moment by connecting capital to the next generation of renewable infrastructure.”
Through DayFi, investors earn yields directly linked to electricity revenues from Daylight’s solar and storage assets, making electricity a new yield-bearing asset class with on-chain access to real-world returns.
This approach could be particularly transformative as institutional investors and crypto funds look for yield-generating assets that have tangible, real-world value.
Unlike speculative tokens, DayFi’s returns are backed by measurable power generation, bridging traditional energy markets and decentralized finance.
Bridging Finance and Sustainability
Zeev Krieger, CEO of Turtle Hill Capital—the firm behind the $60 million project development facility—highlighted how Daylight’s hybrid model of traditional and decentralized finance could reshape the industry.
“This is a dream project for a creative finance team,” Krieger said. “It combines a novel business model with purpose-built specialty credit to accelerate distributed energy deployment. The stakes and potential impact are even more profound as traditional subsidy models face real uncertainty and change.”
By combining specialty credit with blockchain-based incentives, Daylight is creating a financing infrastructure to rapidly scale distributed energy while ensuring transparency and accountability.
Using DeFi tools diversifies capital sources and broadens participation, allowing both large funds and individual token holders to invest in the clean energy transition.
Expanding the Network
Daylight currently funds energy subscriptions in Illinois and Massachusetts through direct customer acquisition and partnerships with local solar companies.
With its project finance facility now operational, Daylight plans to expand decentralized financing through DayFi in the fourth quarter.
Daylight’s vision is to build a self-sustaining ecosystem where clean energy adoption, financial incentives, and decentralized participation reinforce each other. The goal is to finance the renewable transition and enable decentralized energy ownership.
Daylight’s mission is to transform homes into micro power plants that strengthen the grid, reduce costs for families, and return economic value to clean energy producers.
