Enphase files plans for $100 million IPO

<p>Enphase Energy, a Petaluma startup that makes solar components, plans to go public with a stock offering worth up to $100 million, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday.</p><p>Enphase will use the cash to expand into new markets, it said.</p><p>It would be the first Sonoma County company to go public since Petaluma telecom vendor Calix jumped into the market with an $82 million stock sale in March 2010.</p><p>No date or share price was set for the initial public offering. Enphase would be listed on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol ENPH.</p><p>Enphase was founded in 2006 and didn't start shipping its products until 2008. It sells microinverter technology that increases energy production from solar power systems.</p><p>It has shipped more than 750,000 units, and now has about 20 percent of the residential solar inverter market in California, Enphase said.</p><p>The venture-backed company reported $62 million in sales last year and $18 million for the first three months of 2011. But Enphase lost nearly $22 million in 2010 and lost $9.3 million during the first quarter this year.</p><p>It has more than 200 employees, mostly at its headquarters in Petaluma.</p><p>“We expect to continue to hire significant numbers of new employees to support our growth,” Enphase said in the filing.</p><p>Enphase plans to move its corporate headquarters to a leased 96,000-square-foot facility in Petaluma later this year, it said.</p><p>Since 2006, Enphase has raised more than $100 million from venture capital funds. The company has grown quickly, releasing a second-generation microinverter in 2009 and selling more than 400,000 units in 2010.</p><p>Enphase has beefed up its sales and marketing initiatives and opened offices in Europe this year, it said.</p><p>It sells its microinverter systems mostly to distributors, who resell them to solar installers.</p><p>Enphase also makes web-based software that collects and processes data from solar arrays and lets system owners monitor the performance of their systems.</p><p>The company outsources most manufacturing to companies in China, Canada and Germany. Enphase said it's opening an office in China for sales and manufacturing support.</p><p>The company was co-founded by Raghu Belur and Martin Fornage, former telecom engineers for Cerent Corp. and Advanced Fibre Communications in Petaluma. Paul Nahi, a veteran of the semiconductor industry, is president and CEO.</p><p>Morgan Stanley and BofA Merrill Lynch are lead underwriters on the IPO.</p>