Lightyears secures funding for solar farm portfolio expansion
Plus: BlackRock led consortium makes $70b data centre spend
Happy Thursday!
Kia ora Caffeinators, hope you’re well. Plenty to get stuck into today so let’s not waffle too much at the top.
Here’s what’s brewing in your Daily Shot:
Lightyears secures funding for solar farm portfolio expansion
Report: The State of Global Compensation
Event: Auckland Startup Week kicks off on Monday
BlackRock led consortium makes $70b data centre spend
Sponsored: Getting Compensation Right From Day One
A nineteen year old nabs Google backing for AI startup
As always, thank you to everyone who has upgraded to a paid subscription or simply recommended Caffeine to friends and whānau. We couldn’t do any of this without you.
Finn and the CAFFEINE team
Lightyears secures funding for solar farm portfolio expansion: You guys know how much I can’t resist a positive solar energy story so I was always going to cover this one. Kiwi solar developer Lightyears just signed a financing deal with Infradebt, an Australian renewables lender stepping into the New Zealand market for the first time — to finance its growing network of community-scale solar farms.
Lightyears has recently completed construction on a fourth community-scale solar farm, have two more under construction, and several projects due to begin construction in 2026. They focus on community-scale, dual use solar, which allows for productive agriculture to continue beneath solar panels, and the farms are connected to the local distribution network.
The funding replaces Lightyears’ previous support from NZ Green Investment Finance, the government-backed green bank wound down earlier this year. I was worried when that news broke and considering how urgent our green transition is becoming, it’s a reminder of how much the country’s clean energy ecosystem still depends on private capital stepping in.
“New Zealand is undergoing an energy crisis. Solar is best served to replace generation from dwindling gas supplies, particularly during low rainfall years. Infradebt believes solar in New Zealand to be an attractive investment opportunity and is pleased to announce its first transaction in New Zealand,” says Infradebt co-founder and Investment Director, Chin-Lee Yu.
Report: The State of Global Compensation: Our friends at Deel teamed up with the great team at Carta who did what they do best - make important data legible and engaging in a great new report. The State of Global Compensation breaks down some key trends which should interest any founder with their eye on the global market.
Some toplines below but check out the full report here.
AI pay is soaring, fast: The AI talent boom has gone from hype to hiring reality. Specialized AI roles now command 20–25% premiums above base pay. Salaries at the 90th percentile are rising even faster, as startups and scaleups fight for scarce machine learning and data talent.
Equity is going global: Equity-heavy compensation packages aren’t just a Silicon Valley play anymore. Carta’s data shows equity grants for engineers as a share of ownership have grown every year since 2021, especially in Brazil and India, where ownership is increasingly valued. The U.S. still leads, but France and Canada are catching up fast.
Inflation is shaping pay differently everywhere: While some economies are stabilizing, others like Turkey and Argentina remain in flux. To stay agile, companies are shifting from permanent pay increases to one-time cash bonuses to cushion inflation’s impact without locking in costs.
Gender pay gaps persist in tech: The gender wage gap continues to narrow in sales roles but remains stubborn in tech and product positions. Leadership representation is still the biggest driver of inequity, though more companies are now targeting women for senior technical roles.
Contractors rise as borders blur: Remote work and digital visa programs are expanding talent pools worldwide. Contractor hiring is booming in Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil, while markets like the U.S. and Germany remain FTE-heavy.
Event: Auckland Startup Week kicks off on Monday - For the Auckland whanau, get yourselves down to the first day of Auckland Startup week. A high-energy showcase spotlighting Auckland’s most promising startups and visionary innovators. It’s also a free event and we love that in this economy. Check out more details and secure your tickets here.
BlackRock led consortium makes $70b data centre spend: If anyone was stressing that Blackrock was running out of things to buy, you can rest easy. The world’s biggest money manager is doubling down on the infrastructure spend underpinning the current AI boom in a massive data centre deal. A consortium led by BlackRock, with Nvidia and Microsoft among its backers, is set to acquire data centre specialist Aligned Data Centres from Macquarie for roughly US$40 billion (NZ$69.9b).
It’s another sign of the sector’s voracious demand for compute power. As AI models get larger and more complex, the real constraint isn’t talent or algorithms but energy-hungry infrastructure. On current estimate, data centres will use about 4% of global power by 2030 - roughly as much energy as Japan.
Founded in 2013, Aligned now operates more than 50 data centres across the Americas, with a projected total capacity above five gigawatts. Macquarie first took a stake in the Texas-based firm in 2018 and doubled down two years later.
It’s a reminder that increasingly the real race in AI isn’t about who builds the smartest models but who owns the power and space to run them.
Some idiot went on Breakfast this morning to talk about this stuff actually, I hear he did quite well and didn’t say f*** once. Which he is proud of.
Getting Compensation Right From Day One
Startups live and die by their ability to attract and retain great talent. At Caffeine we know seed-stage founders face a recurring challenge: how do you compete for talent when you can’t match corporate salaries? The answer lies in building a compensation strategy that balances cash, equity, and transparency from the start.
That’s where Deel comes in. The global payroll and HR platform has released a free Compensation Guide designed specifically for startups navigating their first hires through to Series A and beyond.
The Guide covers six core elements every founder needs to nail:
Compensation philosophy – defining your market position and pay principles
Salary bands and structures – creating fair, scalable pay ranges
Variable compensation – using bonuses and commissions strategically
Equity distribution – deciding between different forms of options
Founder and early hire pay – balancing minimal salaries with equity stakes
Benefits and perks – offering what matters without overspending
Beyond theory, the Guide walks through practical implementation: how to benchmark against the market, communicate openly with your team, and build processes that scale - and remain compliant - as you grow.
Whether you’re making your first hire or planning for 20, getting compensation right early means fewer headaches later. And in a tight talent market, it might be the edge you need.
Download the free guide here.
Icehouse Ventures celebrates our Brighter Future: Our mates over at Icehouse Ventures have unveiled a beautiful bit of digital art celebrating the many wonderful startups in our ecosystem. There 230+ snuck in there, with plenty of names you’ll recognise and knowing this audience, a few of you will probably feature. Check out an interactive version here.
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Want to get in touch with a news tip, bit of feedback or just to chat? Email hello@caffeinedaily.co