An EIC Accelerator Detour: SolarGaps' Sun-Tracking Solar Blinds

SolarGaps makes window blinds whose aluminium slats carry solar panels and turn automatically to follow the sun, shading a room while generating electricity. Its Kyiv company, SOLARGAPS LLC, was selected at the 9 January 2019 cut-off of the EIC SME Instrument Phase 2, the Horizon 2020 pilot of what became the EIC Accelerator, according to the European Commission's list of selected companies, which names it as the only beneficiary of the project. The grant was €995,934.63 towards a €1,422,763.75 project that ran from 1 June 2019 to 31 October 2021, according to CORDIS. Local tech media reported it as the first Ukrainian start-up to reach Phase 2, as AIN and Emerging Europe wrote in April 2019.

The record after the grant runs through a second company. SolarGaps Inc., incorporated in Delaware on 15 August 2016, raised money from US crowdfunding investors and filed its accounts with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. In its October 2023 offering statement it says it created SolarGaps LLC in Ukraine in 2017 "for European investment opportunities", and that "in 2020, the company closed this subsidiary and moved all business to the United States". That is the company that received the EU grant, and CORDIS shows it reporting on the project until October 2021.

Where SolarGaps Stands Now

The SolarGaps brand is still on sale. The company's contacts page gives a Delaware mailbox address as headquarters and lists distributors in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong and Israel. In August 2024 the Kyiv Independent reported that hundreds of Ukrainians had bought the blinds to ride out blackouts caused by Russian attacks on the grid, that production was in a Kyiv factory with Ukrainian staff, that annual revenue was about $200,000 to $300,000, that the core team was about seven people and that several employees had left to build drones, rockets and planes. Erik told the paper: "We try to scale and to do our best. But it's really hard now." In July 2025 Ukraine's digital transformation minister named SolarGaps among Ukrainian Startup Fund alumni, NV reported; CB Insights lists the fund and Seeds of Bravery as recent backers, without amounts.

What could not be established is the state of the company that received the grant. The US parent says SolarGaps LLC was closed in 2020; CORDIS lists it as coordinator to the end of the project in 2021; and the Kyiv Independent describes a Kyiv factory in 2024 without naming the legal entity. Ukrainian register services (Opendatabot, YouControl) could not be queried for this article, so the LLC's legal status, accounts and any successor company are unverified. No news, filing or announcement from the last 12 months was found that would confirm current trading, and SolarGaps Inc. has filed nothing with the SEC since April 2024.

The Technology: Slats That Track the Sun

Rooftop solar needs a roof, which most city flat-dwellers do not control, and solar glass, which replaces windows with photovoltaic panes, has stayed expensive and hard to install. SolarGaps mounts small solar panels on the slats of external venetian blinds, motorises them and lets software turn them towards the sun, so the same device shades the window and generates power; it can be controlled by app, Amazon Alexa or Google Home. The company's final CORDIS report claims the blinds produce what "same-size rooftop solar panels" produce. The company's figures vary by audience: the website says "around 100Wh per 1 sqm during sunny hours" and savings of up to 30% on electricity bills, the 2023 SEC filing says 100 to 150 W per square metre and up to 80% lower air conditioning costs, and Erik told the Kyiv Independent the blinds cut bills by 50 to 70%. No independent test of the output was found.

The design is protected by US patent 11,905,757, "Photoelectric window blinds", granted on 20 February 2024 from a PCT application filed on 28 January 2020 with Ukrainian priority of 29 January 2019. The applicant and inventor is Erik Yevgen Valeriiovych personally, not SolarGaps LLC or SolarGaps Inc.

What the EU Project Promised, and What the Record Shows

The Phase 2 objective on CORDIS was "to complete the technological and commercial development of the powerful B2B smart solar blinds system, set-up and test pilot production infrastructure, validate the SolarGaps smart solar blinds performance during the piloting with B2B customer and bring the product to the market". It followed a €50,000 Phase 1 feasibility study from November 2017 to February 2018. According to the final report, SolarGaps redesigned its consumer product for business buyers, built and tested a pilot production line, ran a pilot with India's Tata Power, filed a PCT patent application and prepared to raise a Series A round "to accelerate its market entry and scale-up".

The factory is the best documented result: Mind reported in July 2019 that SolarGaps was opening a plant about 15 km from Kyiv with around 20 workers and plans for about 100; Forbes Ukraine wrote in September 2020 that the plant had opened in July 2019, made up to 200 units a month and had 5 staff. The Tata Power pilot is named only in the company's own CORDIS report; neither Tata Power nor any other source mentions it. No Series A round has been announced.

1. B2B blind systemDeliveredFinal report; office product on the website.
2. Pilot production lineDeliveredPlant near Kyiv, reported by Mind and Forbes Ukraine.
3. B2B customer pilotUnverifiedTata Power pilot named only by SolarGaps.
4. Market launchPartlyDistributors in 11 countries; US parent's 2022 sales $19,853.
5. Series A roundNot achievedOnly crowdfunding and grants since 2021.

The Money After the Grant

The audited 2020 and 2021 and reviewed 2022 accounts of SolarGaps Inc. show a small business. Revenue was $49,878 in 2020, $17,427 in 2021 and $19,853 in 2022; cost of sales in 2022 equalled revenue, and professional fees of $430,674 and sales and marketing of $121,019 produced a net loss of $524,015, according to the 2021 and 2022 statements. Both carry going concern warnings, and the 2022 notes describe the company as "still mostly in the developmental process, with very limited revenue". Cash at the end of 2022 was $62,450. These figures conflict with the company's own earlier filing: its November 2021 Form C gave 2020 revenue of $67,394 and a net profit of $158,826, against $49,878 and a loss of $4,872 in the later audited accounts. They also sit far below the $200,000 to $300,000 a year cited to the Kyiv Independent in 2024, a figure that may include Ukrainian sales outside the US company; that could not be checked.

The money came from crowds. A Kickstarter campaign raised $102,354 in 2017, according to the 2023 offering statement; Forbes Ukraine put Kickstarter and Indiegogo together at more than $240,000, and AIN at $150,000. A Wefunder round of convertible SAFEs closed at $886,728, according to the company's closing update, while the 2023 offering statement reports $1,034,138 sold on 30 April 2022. A StartEngine share offering closed at $105,036.37 in February 2023, per its closing update. A third campaign on PicMii, seeking up to $512,000, was extended to 28 April 2024; no result was filed. SolarGaps is not listed among the EIC Fund's equity investments, and the 2019 award was grant only.

Why Europe Should Care

Buildings account for 36% of energy consumption and CO2 emissions in Europe, the project's CORDIS summary notes, and the Commission's solar energy strategy of May 2022 targets at least 600 GW of solar power by 2030, with a "solar-ready" obligation for new buildings now written into the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. Façade and window generation is the part of that potential that renters and flat-dwellers can reach. In Ukraine, small-scale solar became a matter of keeping the lights on, which is where SolarGaps found its clearest demand in 2024.

The Verdict

SolarGaps and the European Commission were not asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records and published statements, linked throughout.