About us

 

“Determined to have solar, John explored the idea of hosting his panels on the roof of a barn across the street, owned by long-time friend and neighbour and somehow transferring the energy to his meter.”

John Kennedy

 

Our story

2017
It all began when John Kennedy (CEO) wanted to buy solar panels for his home, in Sydney, Australia. Only to discover that most of his roof was facing the wrong direction plus a large tree shading the rest, was not helping matters!

Determined to be green, John explored the idea of hosting his panels on the roof of a barn across the street, owned by a long-time friend and neighbour, then somehow transferring the energy to his house.

At the same time, John had been exploring the “sharing economy” as a means to reduce waste through increased asset utilisation. It didn’t take long to join the dots, and the idea of cloud based solar was born.

Ideas are easy. Now for the hard part – the how!


Legal exploration was done as to how this needs to be set up safely and securely for all.


Product Market Fit -
Test marketed the idea on Facebook. Within days over 4,800 people registered worldwide.

2018
Energy license acquired.

Insane amount of legals done and Product Disclosure Statement written.

The LLA Group (formerly Huntley Group) an Australian Financial Services License holder were appointed as the trustee and the manager of the invested funds.

2019
The first test site installed and sold out straight away. The average order value was over $5,000 without any marketing spend.

2020
Test site generates higher than expected returns. Existing customers place deposits for more. New customers place deposits.

Rebuild site to be scaleable and made improvements from feedback.

Hello COVID/Lock down.

PDS amended to allow variable sizes of virtual panels (ARSN: 612 098 110).

2021
Ready to launch

Hello COVID/Lock down again……………..…..

2025
Capital Raise

Launch

 

team

  • Terry Cuthbertson

    Terry Cuthbertson

    Incoming Chairman

    Terry has extensive corporate finance expertise, having advised several businesses and government organizations in relation to mergers, acquisitions and financing.

    Formerly, Terry was a Partner of KPMG Corporate Finance and NSW Partner in Charge of Mergers and Acquisitions, where he coordinated government privatisations, mergers, divestitures and public offerings on the ASX for the New South Wales practice.

    Terry held previous directorships on ASX listed My Net Fone Limited, Montec International, Austpac Resources NL, South American Iron and Steel and Sun BioMedical Limited.

  • John Kennedy

    John Kennedy

    CEO

    John is a proven leader with international experience and a strong background growing disruptive technology businesses. He has worked in the digital and online media industries for over 20 years and has held directorships and senior management positions for more than 17 of those years.

  • Katya Vakulenko

    Katya Vakulenko

    SEM

    Katya Vakulenko is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of SOUP Agency, a leading Sydney-based digital marketing firm known for its strategic, performance-driven approach across paid media, SEO, and social.

  • Sophie Muir

    Sophie Muir

    Public Relations Lead

    Sophie Muir oversees the public relations strategy for SolarCloud, driving awareness of its mission to make renewable energy accessible to every Australian.

    As Managing Director of The Atticism Australia and founder of boutique agency Maven PR, Sophie brings more than a decade of experience leading high-impact campaigns for leading consumer, lifestyle, and technology brands.

    Known for her results-driven and creative approach, she helps position SolarCloud as a category-defining innovator in Australia’s clean energy transition.

  • Joe Adendorff

    Joe Adendorff

    Advisor and Accounting support

    Chartered Accountant, Managing director of a Independent hotel group

  • James Ravens

    Head of Commercial

    James is an accomplished business leader with a background in commercial finance, operations and business management, bringing extensive expertise in business development & optimisation, strategic insights and financial analysis.

    Over his 25-year career, he has worked for Fortune 100 companies including Coca-Cola and American Express, as well as major ASX-listed organisations such as Goodman Fielder.

    In addition to his corporate experience, James has founded, led, and advised a number of smaller companies and startups across sectors including renewable energy, beverages, and financial services, with a focus on strategy, growth, and operational excellence.

    James holds an MBA from UNSW (AGSM), a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) from the University of Sydney, and an Advanced Diploma in Accounting from CGMA, Hong Kong.

  • Martin Essam

    Martin Essam

    CTO

    Martin is a stalwart of the Australian IT consulting industry with experience across four decades.

    He has expertise across the full development stack and processes; and has particular expertise in middleware, integration and databases.

  • Paul Young

    Paul Young

    Operations

    Investor Representative

    Paul’s 39 year career includes broad experience within the telecommunications, information technology, real estate, fleet management and energy industries.

  • Alfonso Grillo

    Alfonso Grillo

    Lawyer

    Legal adviser to SolarCloud

    Alfonso has extensive experience in various aspects of commercial law, including mergers and acquisitions, strategic and

    transactional advice, capital raisings, ASX listings, corporate structuring, due diligence assessments, corporate governance and

    intellectual property issues.

    Alfonso is currently a Director of ASX listed company Nagambie Resources Limited and advises a number of ASX listed companies.

    He was selected for inclusion in the Asia Pacific Legal 500 (2009/10, 2010/11 and 2012/13) for Corporate/M&A, The Best LawyersTM

    Australia 2019-2022 inclusive for Equity Capital Markets and as an Acritas Star Lawyer 2018-2021 inclusive.

  • Rich Atkinson

    Rich Atkinson

    Design

    Rich has over 20 years experience building websites. He also has a great online development knowledge of Fintech products.

  • Tony Petani

    Tony Petani

    Lawyer

    Legal Adviser to SolarCloud

    Tony is a corporate and commercial lawyer specialising in mergers & acquisitions, corporate structuring, commercial law and intellectual property. Whilst Tony has broad commercial understanding, he has particularly assisted clients in the fields of Information and Communication Technology, Media and Entertainment, Health and Finance. Tony has also assisted on large scale corporate financing transactions for listed and unlisted entities. In his spare time, Tony enjoys running, theatre and supporting the West Coast Eagles.

  • Jeff Cooper

    Jeff Cooper

    Jeffrey is the Founding Partner of business and marketing strategy consulting business Step Change. He is one of Australia’s leading growth marketing specialists and was crowned one Australia’s top marketers and entrepreneurs in B&T and Anthill magazine’s 30-under-30 Awards.

    As a founding partner he reviews over 400 business models per year and brings a passion for business and extensive knowledge of human decision making and behaviour to a range of clients.

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