QBotix

01 / WHAT IT BUILT

What the company did

QBotix was a Menlo Park, California robotics startup founded in 2010 by Wasiq Bokhari. It built the QBotix Tracking System (QTS/RTS): a dual-axis solar tracking system that consolidated the drive mechanisms of 200 trackers (~300 kW) into one or two rail-mounted 'SolBot' robots that traveled along a monorail adjusting each panel every 40 minutes - claiming up to 45% more energy than fixed mounts and up to 15% more than single-axis trackers, at comparable cost to single-axis. It raised $23.5 million, including a $12 million Series B in May 2014 from E.ON and Iberdrola (joined by NEA, Firelake, Draper Nexus, Siemens Ventures), and held over 80 MW of projects under contract by July 2014.

03 / EVENT HISTORY

Events in the structured record

1. 2010
   Founded

   Wasiq Bokhari founded QBotix in Menlo Park, CA, developing the SolBot robotic solar tracking system.

2. 2013
   First commercial deployment

   First commercial system deployed at Alameda County's Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, CA (32 trackers + one SolBot, ~120,000 kWh/year).

3. 2014
   Momentum peak

   Won a 45 MW supply contract with UK's Castillium; raised $12M Series B from E.ON and Iberdrola; over 80 MW under contract globally; new CEO Mike Miskovsky appointed.

4. 2015
   Shut down

   QBotix shut down in 2015; no public account of the closure's causes was found.