Robots have proven themselves in extreme and diverse environments from the surface of Mars to battlefields and ocean depths. We are a robotics company that is bringing the innovations of last several decades to the operation and management of solar power plants.
Our mission at QBotix is to leverage our expertise in rugged and intelligent robotics to create breakthrough products that offer a compelling combination of competitive cost, high reliability, easy installation, superior performance, universal compatibility and unprecedented system level intelligence. With our products, our customers reduce their cost of ownership while increasing their profit margins and investment returns in solar power plants.
QBotix has invented the paradigm of Solar Robotics™, where autonomous, rugged and intelligent robots replace hundreds of conventional electromechanical components, and also reduce structural material requirements. The use of our paradigm allows the creation of fundamentally new system level architectures that reduce cost and increase performance and reliability.
Our first product is the QBotix Tracking System™ (QTS™), which delivers dual axis tracking at single axis installed price. The QTS works with all existing photovoltaic modules, inverters and foundations to increase energy production and decrease installed costs, providing the lowest Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) of any mounting or tracking system.
QBotix was founded in August 2010 in Half Moon Bay, California by Wasiq Bokhari and a team of innovators from Caltech and Stanford. Today we are headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Our diverse and talented team includes leading robotics, mechanical, electrical and software engineers as well as industry veterans from some of the world's most respected companies in solar and technology industries.
Wasiq Bokhari is the CEO and founder of QBotix. Previously, he was a Managing Partner of Cleantech Circle, where he focused on innovation, financing and development of ground mounted solar installations. His experience drew his attention to the need for innovation in the solar balance-of-systems which led to the genesis of QBotix. He is a technology entrepreneur with 15 years of experience in growing emerging businesses. He has been part of the founding teams of multiple companies, including serving as the CEO of Bioident Technologies, a pioneering company in printed electronics and the CEO of Kalinex, a company focused on developing MEMS based systems. He brings additional industry perspective on energy and technology through his tenure at Chevron Technology Ventures, where he was part of the team that built Molecular Diamond Technologies, a nanomaterials focused business unit, and with Hitachi Corporate Venture Capital where he worked on the evaluation and growth of new technology based corporate businesses in the areas of energy and materials. Wasiq received dual undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Physics, and a Ph.D. in Physics from MIT. He was part of the team that discovered the top quark at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in 1995.
Terry McCarthy is the Chief Financial Officer for QBotix, where he leads the company’s financial strategy, planning, and accounting. Additionally he serves in a business development role, in which he manages trade and business activities. Terry has over 40 years of finance and accounting experience in the solar and technology industries. Prior to joining QBotix, Terry served in various roles, including CFO, at SolarFun Power Holdings Co., Ltd.(known today as Hanhwa SolarOne). He worked extensively on supply-side operations and bankability during his time there, in which the company grew from $100 million to $750 million in revenues. Terry spent 21 years with Deloitte & Touche LLP in San Jose, CA, where he was Associate Managing Partner of the Deloitte U.S. Chinese Services Group. Early in his career, Terry co-founded Hayes, Perisho & McCarthy, Inc., a CPA firm where he was an audit partner and president from 1976 to 1985. He is also managing member and investor of TriUnited Investors, LLC, and independent director and audit committee chairman of hiSoft Technologies, Inc., based in Dalian, China.
Lalo Ruiz serves as QBotix’s Director of Engineering and is responsible for the design and development of the QTS™ system. Lalo brings a 21-year track record for creating industry-leading automation and robotics systems across diverse industries, including information storage, hard disk drives, semiconductors, defense and solar. Prior to QBotix, Lalo was the principal engineer at GreenVolts, a developer of high concentration PV systems, and managed the team that developed the company’s precision solar tracker. He has also led engineering teams at EDGE Product Development, Danaher, Intel and Intersection Technologies At Intersection Technologies Lalo served as the Director of Motion System Development where he lead a team that developed a revolutionary automated system for LCD testing. Lalo has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from UC Davis and an MS in Dynamics and Controls from Santa Clara University.
As Director of Operations, Michael Enock oversees all operational activities at QBotix, including supply-chain and sourcing. He brings more than 20 years of experience in supply-chain management, manufacturing process optimization and customer support leadership, which he has called on to produce the integrated, high-performance, and cost-effective operations at QBotix. Most recently he was VP, Operations at EchoFirst, Inc., a residential solar energy innovator, where he implemented a robust, scalable supply chain and structured distribution and installation network. Prior to that, he managed Operations functions at Oxford Instruments, Varian, Inc. and Agilent Technologies in the scientific instruments sector, where he led several mergers and acquisitions. Mike has extensive experience building effective supplier relationships and partner networks that deliver quality products to customers in all regions of the world.
Forest Baskett joined NEA in 1999 as a Venture Partner and became a General Partner in 2004. Forest focuses on information and energy technology investments. He is the NEA representative on the boards of AstroWatt, Audience, Chelsio Communications, Serious Energy and SuVolta. He also assists Alta Devices, Azuray Technologies, Bandgap Engineering, Conviva, Fusion-io (NYSE: FIO), Illumitex, Ketra, Luxtera, NovaTorque, Solar Junction, Svaya Nanotechnologies, Tableau Software, Terrajoule and Tintri as either a board member, observer or advisor. In the past he has worked with, among others, Aeluros, Arch Rock, Atheros Communications, Data Domain, E2O, Fulcrum Microsystems, Nanochip, Newisys, RingCube Technologies, SiBEAM, Telegent Systems, and T-RAM Semiconductor. Forest also previously held advisory positions with FineGround, PolyServe, ReShape and SMIC. Prior to NEA, Forest was Senior Vice President of R&D and Chief Technology Officer of Silicon Graphics Inc. He founded and directed the Western Research Laboratory of Digital Equipment Corporation before joining SGI. Prior to that, he was a Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Dr. Baskett received a BA in Mathematics from Rice University, a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Forest Baskett joined NEA in 1999 as a Venture Partner and became a General Partner in 2004. Forest focuses on information and energy technology investments. He is the NEA representative on the boards of AstroWatt, Audience, Chelsio Communications, Serious Energy and SuVolta. He also assists Alta Devices, Azuray Technologies, Bandgap Engineering, Conviva, Fusion-io (NYSE: FIO), Illumitex, Ketra, Luxtera, NovaTorque, Solar Junction, Svaya Nanotechnologies, Tableau Software, Terrajoule and Tintri as either a board member, observer or advisor. In the past he has worked with, among others, Aeluros, Arch Rock, Atheros Communications, Data Domain, E2O, Fulcrum Microsystems, Nanochip, Newisys, RingCube Technologies, SiBEAM, Telegent Systems, and T-RAM Semiconductor. Forest also previously held advisory positions with FineGround, PolyServe, ReShape and SMIC. Prior to NEA, Forest was Senior Vice President of R&D and Chief Technology Officer of Silicon Graphics Inc. He founded and directed the Western Research Laboratory of Digital Equipment Corporation before joining SGI. Prior to that, he was a Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Dr. Baskett received a BA in Mathematics from Rice University, a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Reyad Fezzani is Chairman and Chief Executive of Regenerate Power LLC a California based Energy Company he founded specializing in the development of Utility Scale Solar Power plants. He is also Chairman and Managing Partner of Energy Finance Company, a distributed generation financier and asset manager, and an Operating Partner of the Potomac Asset Management Company. He also serves as a Non-Executive Director of OC Oerlikon Corporation AG, a swiss industrial technology company, and five cleantech, venture backed private companies in the US and Canada. In his prior career he was a senior executive at BP Plc where he worked in every part of the global energy business. In his last role he was Chief Executive of BP Solar, and Chairman of Tata-BP Solar India, and prior to that was President of BP's renewable business Global Wind and Solar based in California USA - a business operating solar manufacturing plants globally, and developing, constructing and operating Solar and Wind farms in the US, Europe, India and China with over 3,000 employees. Educated in the UK, he holds a Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology from Imperial College, London. He is a Chartered Engineer, and a Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers, and Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.
Peter Shannon is a Managing Director of Firelake Capital Management. He is focused on early stage investments in renewable energy, technologies improving use and delivery of natural resources, and other innovations applied to mature industries. From 2005 until joining Firelake, Peter was a Principal at Atlas Ventures where he focused on solar, grid-scale energy storage, industrial energy efficiency, solid state data storage, and related software investments. While at Atlas Venture he served as an observer on the boards of Advanced Electron Beams, Simple Tuition, MiaSolé, Songbird, Active Endpoints, Pixtronix, and Lilliputian Systems. Before joining Atlas Venture, Peter graduated from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with an MBA degree. Prior to attending graduate school, he was Vice President of Technology at Browz Group. Peter’s experience in entrepreneurship and software design began while an undergraduate at the University of Virginia where he co-founded Eye Response, Inc., a company that pioneered computer eye tracking systems.
Gerd Goette is a Partner, based in Silicon Valley, CA. He specializes in investments in energy and cleantech. He manages SVC’s investments in BPL Global, Coulomb Technologies, Genband, Tendril and Wirescan AS. Earlier investments include Broadlight (acquired by Broadcom), Dune Networks (acquired by Broadcom), G2 Microsystems (acquired by Broadcom), IP-Unity Glenayre, ISE Limited (TSX:ISE), Kagoor Networks (acquired by Juniper Networks), Myrio (acquired by Siemens), Prenova (acquired by Ecova), Reactive NanoTechnologies (acquired by Indium), SmartSynch (acquired by Itron) and Verimatrix. Gerd serves on the VC advisory board of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and is a Charter Member of the Asia America MultiTechnology Association (AAMA). With 25 years of worldwide industry experience, he combines a strong technical background with wide-ranging operational skills. Prior to joining Siemens Venture Capital in September 2000, Gerd held the position of Vice President and Head of CableTV Solutions in Siemens Information and Communication Networks. Additionally, Gerd's managerial and operating expertise stems from earlier focus on R&D, system integration, product line management, technical sales support, project management and general management in the fields of telecommunication equipment and solutions. Gerd received a master’s degree in electrical engineering (Dipl. Ing.) from Technical University Darmstadt, Germany.
New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA) is a leading venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs build transformational businesses across multiple stages, sectors and geographies. With approximately $14 billion in committed capital, NEA invests in information technology, healthcare and energy technology companies at all stages in a company’s lifecycle, from seed stage through IPO. The firm's long track record includes more than 175 portfolio company IPOs and more than 290 acquisitions. In the U.S., NEA has offices in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area; Menlo Park, California; and New York City. In addition, New Enterprise Associates (India) Pvt. Ltd. has offices in Bangalore and Mumbai, India and New Enterprise Associates (Beijing), Ltd. has offices in Beijing and Shanghai, China. For additional information, visit
www.nea.com.As an early-stage cleantech investment company with a long-term horizon, Firelake Capital Management focuses on areas where they believe new technologies or an early-stage idea can significantly change the current market economics. Firelake aims to solve the world’s problems through transformational change in areas like alternative energy, water, material sciences, and global supply chains.
FJ JAIC, a DFJ Network fund is an early stage, US-Japan cross border venture capital fund with teams based in Tokyo and Silicon Valley. It leverages its strong industry relationships in Japan and the vast DFJ and JAIC global networks to create a customer development advantage for its portfolio companies. Over the last decade, our GP team has successfully helped several startups in US and Japan expand beyond their traditional borders. DFJ JAIC's Cleantech focus spans solar balance-of-systems, advanced materials, materials from sustainable feedstocks, energy storage and water treatment. To learn more about DFJ JAIC, please visit
www.dfjjaic.comSiemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineering, operating in the fields of industry, energy and healthcare as well as providing infrastructure solutions, primarily for cities and metropolitan areas. For over 160 years, Siemens has stood for technological excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality. The company is the world's largest provider of environmental technologies. Around 40 percent of its total revenue stems from green products and solutions. In fiscal 2011, which ended on September 30, 2011, revenue from continuing operations totaled €73.5 billion and net income from continuing operations €7.0 billion. At the end of September 2011, Siemens had around 360,000 employees worldwide on the basis of continuing operations.