Nextracker Announces Acquisition of Origami Solar

Nextracker (Nasdaq: NXT), a leading solar technology platform provider, announced its expansion into the solar panel frame market with the acquisition of Origami Solar, Inc., a pioneer in roll-formed steel frame technology, in an all-cash transaction of approximately $53 million including future contingent earnout consideration.

Steel frames offer a high-performance alternative to traditional extruded aluminum frames, delivering superior strength and durability, competitive cost, a robust localized supply chain, and significantly lower carbon footprint. The use of steel as a frame material also has the potential to unlock innovation around new solar panel mounting approaches, including robotic assembly, with related improvements in mounting speed and labor cost.

Origami’s frame designs are the result of four years of dedicated development and refinement, including extensive third-party laboratory testing. Engineered as a drop-in replacement for conventional aluminum frames, Origami’s frames mirror standard industry form factors, allowing seamless integration into existing manufacturing lines and helping to facilitate broad and rapid adoption of steel frame technology. Origami’s frames have been tested and qualified by leading panel manufacturers, and with U.S.-based fabrication capacity in place, Nextracker is well positioned to support rapid scaling.

Nextracker brings significant long-term experience and engineering expertise related to the critical panel-tracker interface. The acquisition of Origami Solar brings dedicated panel frame design and engineering talent to Nextracker to drive continued innovation around optimized panel-tracker solutions.

“Solar panel frame technology has been relatively unchanged for over 45 years,” said Dan Shugar, founder and CEO of Nextracker. “During that time, the size and dynamic wind loads on solar panels have increased dramatically, especially in utility-scale tracking applications. From a structural engineering perspective, the shift from aluminum to steel is compelling — steel offers greater strength at competitive cost and significantly reduced carbon intensity. Most importantly, it helps to unlock opportunities for localized manufacturing from steel coil through final fabrication, while delivering real customer benefits like faster panel installation and improved long-term system performance. And with an estimated total addressable market (TAM) in excess of $750 million in the U.S. alone, we see this as a substantial new business opportunity for Nextracker.”

“Origami Solar was founded to drive the commercialization of steel frame technology and to realize the customer value and benefits this new technology can offer,” said Gregg Patterson, CEO of Origami Solar. “Our team has solved key challenges around design, performance, and high-volume production. By joining forces with Nextracker, we have a great opportunity to scale this innovation faster with their global supply chain ecosystem and deep customer relationships and to commercialize a solution that makes a real impact.”

Nextracker | https://www.nextracker.com/

Origami Solar | www.origamisolar.com