New Delhi-based cKers Finance Pvt. Ltd, a specialised sustainable energy finance company, has raised $5 million (about Rs 36.85 crore) from non-profit New Energy Nexus.
California-based New Energy, which supports clean energy businesses, said in a statement it invested in the Indian company through the cKers Finance Sustainable Energy Bond.
cKers Finance will use the funds to grow the distributed residential and commercial solar energy segments, including solar systems and pumps. It will also use the capital to invest in emerging energy service company models that focus on promoting energy efficiency.
Pawan Mehra, director and chief investment officer at cKers Finance, the firm has helped in setting over 45 megawatts of solar energy assets over 100 locations in the country.
“Our specialty is in being able to do smaller ticket-sizes, which most traditional financiers shy away from,” he said, adding that the company this year would pilot financing instruments targeted at small and medium-sized enterprises.
Separately, New Energy Nexus chief energy officer David Kennedy said the non-profit was confident in its investment because of cKers’ capital deployment capabilities and rapidly falling cost of solar technology.
The company says it supports clean energy entrepreneurs through funds, accelerators, and networks. Originally having begun operations in California, the institution now operates programmes in several parts of the world, including China, India, Southeast Asia, and East Africa.
cKers Finance, meanwhile, was established in 2017 and says it operates in segments related to clean energy and energy efficiency. The company focusses on making project finance accessible to enterprises and businesses of all sizes and develops asset-backed approaches to achieve this goal.
According to its website, some of its products include micro infrastructure loans, energy access electrification finance, mezzanine financing, and rooftop solar system loans.
The investment by New Energy Nexus in the firm represents another bet on the larger – and rapidly-growing – renewables energy space in India. The effects of climate energy and energy efficiency needs have resulted in several moves by players across the ecosystem to invest and access capital.
Earlier this month, for example, VCCircle reported that a green fund anchored by the governments of India and the United Kingdom was in talks with Dutch and British firms to join them as limited partners.
In January, Singapore state investment firm Temasek and Sweden’s EQT set up a $500-million renewable energy platform in India intending to build solar and wind farms in the country with a total installed capacity of four gigawatts.
One of the largest private equity-style players in India, the Washington-headquartered International Finance Corporation, has also made moves in the renewables space. In January, it proposed a debt investment of $36 million (around Rs 200 crore) in Mahindra Renewables Pvt. Ltd. to help the company develop a solar power project.