The verified answer
As of Sep 2026, DEPLOY verifies SolarBrush: 1 model, 2 deployments across 2 regions, $200,000 raised. 1 source back the record.
CategoryDrones
Overview
SolarBrush (now Aerial Power , rebranded to Aerial Agency / AIr™) is a London-based robotics company developing drone-based cleaning technology for solar panels. Founded by German engineer Ridha Azaiz — who conceived the concept at age 13 — the company's flagship SolarBrush product attaches a brush to an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to remove dust and soiling from photovoltaic panels in arid regions, restoring energy-generation efficiency without water. The technology has since evolved into a patented, drone-agnostic airflow cleaning method (AIr™) that uses rotor downwash for waterless, non-contact surface maintenance.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- 2 deployments on file
- Active incidents
- None on file
Valuation of record
Company-claimedPriced roundSeed post-money
Key facts
Robot
Technology
CEO
Founder
Formerly known as
Funding to date
Awards
Trials
Financial stage
Product
Use case
Environments
Data & sources
Web sources
1
1 source backing this record.View all →
Models (1)
View all models →SolarBrush on the deployment map
View the global map2 verified deployments across 2 regions, newest verified Jun 2024. Explore where SolarBrush's robots are operating, by place and type.
View the full SolarBrush deployment record →
Relationships
Current leadership (1)
- Ridha Azaiz Founder & CEOSEC-verified
Founders (1)
- Ridha Azaizsolefounded 2014-01-01
Safety record
No incidents on record for SolarBrush.
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →
Operator customers (1)
- SolarBrush2 deployments
Recent coverage
SolarBrush in third-party press
Peers
99 peers across 1 segment. Every SolarBrush competitor derived from shared form-factor and application-domain edges.
drone(99)
57 companies in this segment · moderately_concentrated (HHI 1809.2177305910177) · leader Anduril Industries at 3057%
- AEVEX Aerospacedirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- ATL Global Holding AGdirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- Aereodirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- AeroVironmentdirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- AgXeeddirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- AirForestrydirect competitor(inferred)moderate
Financial state
- Total funding
- $200,000
- Reporting basis
- private_reported
- Lifecycle stage
- growth
- Counterparty risk class
- moderate
Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.
Funding rounds (1)
- Seed2015-01-01
$200,000(reported) · $1M post
Investors: Pitch@Palace, Start-Up Chile, EASME (EU Executive Agency for SMEs)
Timeline
Every recorded move in SolarBrush’s history, most recent first: funding rounds, partnerships, acquisitions, supply-chain starts, key hires, and press.
Funding roundSeed funding round
2015-01-01Seed raising $200000
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Record createdJun 8, 2026
Added to the verified registry
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedJun 1, 2024
SolarBrush at United Kingdom, Europe
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedJun 1, 2024
SolarBrush at United States (multiple hotel chains)
Sources (1)
Common questions
What is SolarBrush?
What does SolarBrush make?
Who competes with SolarBrush?
Who is the CEO of SolarBrush?
Where is SolarBrush headquartered?
How much funding has SolarBrush raised?
Where does SolarBrush operate robots?
How many robots has SolarBrush deployed?
Is SolarBrush a top robotics company?
When was SolarBrush founded?
Is SolarBrush safe?
Methodology: Verified · 1 source (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-08-21
Verification posture
Verified
Low confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-08-21
Sources by quality tier
- 1
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for SolarBrush.Peer companies
- Amazon25 models
- Anduril Industries7 models
- DJI7 models
- Autel Robotics4 models
- Baykar4 models
- Earendil Robotics4 models
In the press
Recent coverage mentioning SolarBrush from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
Drones in agrivoltaics: An exploratory review
Peer-reviewed review citing Aerial Power's SolarBrush as an example of companies offering drone-based PV panel cleaning products, noting its brush 'tail' attachment on a UAV.
Start-Up Chile — Analysis (IEA)
IEA analysis of the Start-Up Chile accelerator notes it supported non-Chilean start-up Aerial Power (formerly SolarBrush), an Anglo-German developer of a drone system for solar PV…
Meet the 11 startups accelerating change at VERGE Hawaii
Aerial Power (maker of SolarBrush) selected for the VERGE Accelerate cohort at VERGE Hawaii 2018 as the first company to develop a fully automated drone-based method for cleaning…
Solarbrush — betahaus Berlin interview with founder Ridha Azaiz
betahaus interview with Ridha Azaiz, founder of SolarBrush, covering the brush-carrying cleaning robot for solar panels and the company's participation in the hub:raum accelerator…
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/solar-brush.md
- RSS feed: /companies/solar-brush/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/d65b3a55-dc24-42b0-ab6f-0ca3c3a92f58
- Revision history: /companies/solar-brush/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Peer companies
- Amazon25 models
- Anduril Industries7 models
- DJI7 models
- Autel Robotics4 models
- Baykar4 models
- Earendil Robotics4 models
Video
Heat Index
Category contender75/100
A composite of competitive footprint, funding, press velocity, active partnerships, and supply-chain edges. Different from the Intelligence score below (which is per-form-factor productization). Non-robotics companies cap at 25.
Reality vs attention
SolarBrush draws attention at the 9th percentile but verifies reality at the 35th percentile among aerial robots. Hype Gap -26, 101st widest among aerial robots.
6-month trend
Analysis
Clean safety record across 2 verified deployments. Funding runway warrants monitoring: last known round 142 months ago.
Signal flags
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Sep 6, 2026