Making whole-home electrification accessible and affordable.
Why we invested
The economics of home electrification are compelling—solar and batteries keep getting cheaper while utility rates rise—but the path to adoption remains frustratingly complex. Homeowners face a maze of decisions: what to install, in what order, how to size systems for future needs, and how to finance it all. Most contractors sell single products, leaving homeowners to piece together their own electrification journey. Balto solves this by providing a modeling platform that analyzes utility bills and consumption patterns to recommend optimal electrification strategies, paired with financial products that make the economics work for both homeowners and contractors.
James brings rare operational depth from scaling Solar City to building Dandelion—the first scaled residential geothermal company. Frank adds the technical rigor to build modeling infrastructure that can predict energy loads and cash flows with precision. Together, they're building for an inevitable future where most American homes run on solar and storage. The next few years will be challenging for residential solar, but that's exactly when well-positioned teams can build the foundations of generational companies. We're excited to partner with them through this transition and come out positioned to capture the tailwind ahead.
Why this work matters
The US has roughly 4-5 million homes with solar today. The path to 30-40 million homes runs through making electrification decisions simple and financing accessible. Balto's approach—combining deep building analytics with contractor-friendly financial products—addresses both the complexity barrier that keeps homeowners on the sidelines and the sales friction that limits contractor reach. When homeowners can see exactly how solar, batteries, and heat pumps work together for their specific home and finances, the decision becomes obvious rather than overwhelming.