CINCINNATI, Ohio — GoSun, a Cincinnati-based solar startup, has opened its 2026 Regulation Crowdfunding round through StartEngine, the company announced Oct. 29 in a GlobeNewswire release. It is GoSun’s sixth original Regulation Crowdfunding offering since 2017, and its first since the Moonrider 27 compact electric tractor was introduced at the 2026 Farm Progress Show.
The company’s electric vehicle line includes two electric boats, a solar cargo e-bike and the Moonrider 27 tractor. The e-bike and tractor are taking reservations for 2027 delivery, while the solar cookers GoSun began shipping in 2014 remain its proven product line. The round’s terms, financial statements and risk factors are published on StartEngine and in the Form C the company filed with the SEC on Sept. 30, 2026, through StartEngine Primary, LLC, according to the release.
"Anyone looking at a private EV company should be able to see what it has delivered and what is still on reservation," GoSun CEO and founder Patrick Sherwin said in the company’s GlobeNewswire release. "We began shipping solar cookers in 2014, and our tractor and cargo e-bike are currently on reservation. We’d rather investors judge us on that record than on a pitch video."
That delivered-versus-promised framing is the pitch. GoSun began shipping its GoSun Sport and GoSun Mini solar cookers in 2014 and had sent more than 1,000 products to 22 countries by July of that year, Sherwin told Soapbox Cincinnati at the time, according to the release. The company’s website now lists more than 180,000 customers in over 100 countries.
Regulation Crowdfunding lets private companies raise money from ordinary investors, not just accredited ones, under SEC rules that require a Form C filing with financial statements and risk disclosures. GoSun’s filing history is long for the format: original Form C offerings in 2017, 2019, 2021, 2024 and 2025 precede this year’s round, all public on SEC EDGAR, according to the release.
GoSun is part of a broader Ohio clean-energy business story that also includes industrial players such as Forgent Power Solutions’ downtown Columbus expansion. Where Forgent sells grid equipment at industrial scale, GoSun’s bet is consumer-scale solar — cookers first, and now small electric vehicles built around the same off-grid idea.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: the round is open, it is the company’s sixth since 2017, the Form C was filed Sept. 30, and the newest vehicles are reservations for 2027 rather than shipping products — all from the company’s own release and SEC filing references. What we’re still waiting on: how much the round ultimately raises, and whether the Moonrider 27 and the cargo e-bike hit their 2027 delivery targets. Crowdfunding investors are buying into a private, illiquid company, and the Form C’s risk factors are the document the company itself points readers to.
Sherwin has published a buyer’s guide alongside the round — what to check before backing a startup EV company that isn’t public yet, starting with what a company has delivered. It is an unusual move for a founder raising money, and it cuts both ways: GoSun’s own record, a decade of shipped cookers against vehicle lines still on reservation, is exactly the evidence it invites investors to weigh.
For Cincinnati, the round is another marker in the city’s quiet solar niche. GoSun has operated from Cincinnati through the entire arc — cookers in 2014, successive crowdfunding rounds, and now tractors and boats — building a customer base the company counts in six figures worldwide without ever going public.
What happens next: the crowdfunding round runs on StartEngine under the terms in the Form C, and the reservation lines for the Moonrider 27 tractor and solar cargo e-bike point to 2027 deliveries. NewsForce247 will check the round’s closing results and the delivery timeline as both develop.
Photo: Solarbroman, CC BY-SA