Why a Power Company Raised $85 Million Without Naming a Technology

Stark Power has secured an $85 million credit facility from Bank Hapoalim to buy US power assets. Not solar assets, not battery assets. Power assets. Enerdatics logs the sector on this financing as Multiple, and of 31 comparable US raises this year it is the only one carrying that label. The missing technology is the whole thesis.

Key takeaways

• Stark Power has secured an $85 million credit facility from Bank Hapoalim to acquire utility-scale projects that power digital infrastructure in the US. It is structured as a corporate credit facility providing flexible growth and acquisition capital, and was fully underwritten by Bank Hapoalim on a sole-lender basis.
• Proceeds will support the acquisition, development and construction of projects before their financial close, and the acquisition of operating US utility-scale power assets.
• Stark Power is a US-focused power infrastructure developer and acquirer targeting opportunities across the asset lifecycle, from operating assets to late-stage development projects, aimed at demand growth from data centres, artificial intelligence infrastructure and industrial electrification.
• The company was founded by former executives of Enlight Renewable Energy and Nofar Energy, and combines power generation with powered land infrastructure to serve large-scale energy consumers.
• Enerdatics records 31 US debt financings of $200 million or less announced in 2026, of which only three fund operational assets rather than construction or development, and only two are raised to acquire assets rather than build them.

Why does a corporate facility do something project debt cannot?

It pays before financial close, which is the only moment that matters in a competitive sale.

Project finance lends against one asset and is repaid from that asset's cash flow, so it needs the asset to exist in a diligenced, contracted, bankable form. A corporate credit facility lends against the company, so the borrower can draw on it to sign a purchase agreement, fund a deposit or carry a project through late-stage development, and replace that money with project-level debt later once the asset qualifies for it.

Leap's record states the mechanism directly: Stark Power uses corporate capital to acquire and advance projects before securing long-term project-level financing. For a buyer competing against larger balance sheets, that is the difference between bidding and watching. A seller running a process takes certainty over price more often than the reverse, and certainty is what a drawn corporate facility provides. It is the same layering Enerdatics has described elsewhere, where a developer running holding company debt alongside project construction debt is financing growth at two speeds at once.

What does a sector field reading Multiple actually tell you?

That the bet is on demand rather than on a technology.

Of the 31 US debt financings of $200 million or less that Enerdatics records in 2026, every one except this is tagged Solar, Battery or Wind. Those are companies whose economics depend on a particular cost curve, incentive regime and set of policy risks. A developer that commits to batteries is betting storage stays the cheapest way to meet a given need. One that commits to nothing in particular is betting only that American electricity demand keeps rising and that whoever owns dispatchable supply gets paid.

That is the position Stark describes: demand growth from data centres, artificial intelligence infrastructure and industrial electrification, served by whatever generation and powered land it can assemble. Powered land is a site that comes with secured grid capacity, sold or leased to a consumer that needs a connection faster than the queue allows. Pairing it with generation sells the two things a large load actually needs, a place to sit and electricity to draw, without caring which technology produces the electrons. Enerdatics has traced the same demand assumption on the asset side, where 715 MW of late-stage US solar was bought on the expectation that data centre load would arrive to contract it, against roughly 8,300 MW of such load building or announced in two states that run about 277 MW today.

Why does one Israeli bank underwrite a US power buyer on its own?

Because at this size the decision is as much about the people as the assets.

An $85 million facility fully underwritten on a sole-lender basis means one credit committee took the entire exposure, with no syndicate to share it. Lenders do that for borrowers they can assess directly. Stark Power was founded by former executives of Enlight Renewable Energy and Nofar Energy, two Israeli renewable energy companies, and Bank Hapoalim is one of Israel's largest banks. Leap's record states the founders' backgrounds and names the lender but says nothing about any prior relationship between them, so the connection is an inference from those facts rather than something disclosed.

What the structure does disclose is confidence in a company with a short independent history. The facility funds acquisitions that have not been identified, in sectors that have not been specified. That is a mandate, not a loan against a project, and a sole lender granting it is making a judgement about management.

Enerdatics records 31 US debt financings of $200 million or less announced in 2026. Only three of them fund assets Leap classifies as operational: this $85 million facility, a $106 million facility for Nexamp covering the long-term operation of community solar, and roughly $7 million for ReVolve Renewable Power to acquire the Horseshoe Bend wind project. Only Stark's and ReVolve's are raised to buy assets rather than build them, and Stark's is more than ten times the size. The other 28 fund construction or development of projects their borrowers originated themselves, which makes acquisition capital a thin and distinctive slice of this year's US debt market.

What does the deal signal for the US power market?

It signals that load growth has produced a new kind of buyer, defined by what it will serve rather than what it will build. For a decade the US market sorted developers by technology, because incentives, supply chains and expertise all ran along technology lines. A company organised around data centre and industrial demand inherits none of those boundaries, and will buy an operating gas plant, a solar portfolio or a powered site depending only on which clears the return.

The second signal is about competition for operating assets. Most capital raised in this market still funds new build, so a borrower armed with corporate money specifically to buy finished assets is competing in a thinly contested part of the market with an unusually fast instrument. If demand expectations hold, expect more facilities of this shape and more bidders who name a customer rather than a technology. If they do not, a corporate facility drawn against unidentified acquisitions is also the structure with the least protection underneath it.

Frequently asked questions

What will Stark Power use the $85 million for?Acquiring and developing US utility-scale power assets, including operating assets and late-stage development projects, and carrying projects through to financial close before long-term project-level financing is in place. The facility was fully underwritten by Bank Hapoalim on a sole-lender basis.

What is the difference between a corporate credit facility and project finance?Project finance lends against a single asset and is repaid from that asset's cash flow, so it requires a built or near-built project. A corporate facility lends against the company, so it can fund acquisitions and development spending before an asset is financeable on its own.

How common is acquisition debt in the US market?Uncommon at this size. Enerdatics records 31 US debt financings of $200 million or less in 2026, of which only two are raised to acquire assets rather than build them, and only three fund operational rather than development or construction-stage assets.

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