Symbium Becomes First Investment of E8’s New Regenr8 Fund

Current Investor, E8, Doubles Down on Symbium, Signaling Strong Confidence in Growth Trajectory

Seattle, WA — May 8, 2025 — Symbium, a Stanford-led team delivering instant permitting for clean energy and energy-saving projects, today announced that it is the first company to receive investment from Regenr8, a new member-led fund aligned with E8’s investment activity. This milestone investment — from a current investor doubling down through a new fund — underscores strong confidence in Symbium’s growth trajectory and its mission to streamline permitting for sustainable building upgrades.

As a leader in instant permitting, Symbium is accelerating the deployment of clean energy and energy-saving projects by enabling immediate permit approvals not just for solar installations, but also for a broad range of other projects. Symbium’s solution supports instant permit issuance for:

• Solar photovoltaic (PV) installations
• Battery energy storage systems (ESS)
• Electric vehicle (EV) charging stations
• Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system upgrades
• Residential re-roofing projects
• Main electrical panel upgrades and more

Symbium’s platform automatically performs code compliance checks with 100% accuracy using its breakthrough computational law technology, which was developed by the company’s Stanford-based founding team. Qualifying applications are approved on the spot, eliminating lengthy plan reviews. Unlike other solutions that focus only on solar permitting, Symbium’s technology seamlessly handles diverse project types in real time, helping to cut red tape and accelerate clean energy adoption.

E8’s Regenr8 Fund Backs Symbium’s Expansion

E8, a network of over 130 angel investors focused on climate tech and clean energy solutions, launched the Regenr8 fund in 2025 to make member-driven investments in the most promising cleantech startups. Symbium became Regenr8’s inaugural investment following a vote of the fund’s membership — a core feature of its member-driven model. This vote of confidence is especially notable given that both E8’s Decarbon8-US Fund and individual members had previously invested in Symbium, making this a strong reaffirmation of support for the company’s growth and impact.

“Symbium’s exceptional team combines deep domain expertise with a track record of execution, and their innovative platform has redefined what’s possible in instant permitting across multiple clean energy technologies,” said Jordan Schwartz, E8 Board Member and Regenr8 Fund Manager. “Their selection by Regenr8 reflects the sustained confidence of the E8 community. With previous investments from both our Decarbon8-US Fund and individual members, this new vote of support by Regenr8’s membership affirms Symbium’s leadership and momentum in accelerating clean energy deployment.”

“We’re honored to be the first company backed by E8’s Regenr8 fund,” said Leila Banijamali, Co-Founder and CEO of Symbium. “Having a current investor increase their commitment through a new fund is a huge vote of confidence in our team and technology. This investment will help us scale our instant permitting solution to more communities, furthering our goal of making clean energy upgrades faster, easier, and more accessible for everyone.”

Bakersfield Pioneers Industry-First Instant Permitting Across Many Project Types

In an industry-first move, the City of Bakersfield, California has expanded its use of Symbium’s platform to cover a wide array of permit types beyond solar — setting a new benchmark for modernizing permitting. Bakersfield is one of the busiest jurisdictions for solar and battery installations, with over 70,000 systems permitted in the past 20 years and 100–200 new applications each week. By deploying Symbium, the city now offers instant permit approvals for EV charging stations, residential reroofs, electrical panel upgrades, and other upgrades in addition to solar and storage.

“Symbium’s process is an essential tool that allows us to provide a comprehensive design review instantly, and this is not limited to solar and storage. Working with Symbium, we were able to create instant permitting for residential re-roofs, electrical service panel upgrades, and EV charging installations,” said Pete Jackson, Electrical Specialist for the City of Bakersfield. This pioneering rollout in Bakersfield demonstrates the scalability and real-world impact of Symbium’s technology, paving the way for other cities to follow suit in accelerating clean energy projects.

Local governments can now onboard Symbium’s instant permitting solution themselves at no cost by visiting the government-only Symbium Permit Configurator. This self-service tool empowers any building department to configure Symbium for their jurisdiction, making it easier than ever for cities and counties to embrace instant permitting and unlock the benefits of faster, automated approvals. Using the permit configurator, Symbium’s instant permitting can be activated for any jurisdiction in a matter of days.

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About E8/Regenr8

E8 Angels is a leading community of angel investors dedicated to accelerating the transition to a sustainable and prosperous future by funding high-impact climate tech startups. The E8 community comprises 130+ accredited investors worldwide, and E8 members have invested over $67M into cleantech ventures since 2006. In 2025, Regenr8, an E8 member-led annual fund was launched to focus on collective investments into innovative companies poised to significantly advance clean energy, sustainability, and climate solutions.

About Symbium

Symbium is the leader in automated compliance checks for instant or accelerated permit issuance across a range of project types in the energy saving space. The company partners with local building departments to enable instant permitting, which is used by high volume and independent installers everywhere. Symbium is currently a resident at Autodesk and has achieved significant recognition and growth as a proud portfolio company of climate impact leaders such as Elemental Impact and RMI’s Third Derivative. The company continues to receive numerous awards for its breakthrough tech and success with instant permitting from the Association for Corporate Growth, GovTech 100, the ALP Alain Colmerauer Heritage Prize, the Ivory Prize, BuiltWorlds Maverick, and the Hive 50.

Contact: press@symbium.com