Mumbai-based energy platform SolarSquare Energy Pvt. Ltd on Thursday said it has secured Rs 100 crore (around $12 million) as a part of its Series A funding, co-led by Elevation Capital and Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital.
The round also saw participation from existing investors including Good Capital and Rainmatter, with angels Vidit Atrey and Sanjeev Barnwal (Meesho).
The startup plans to use the fresh funds to expand its footprint across India in the next 18-24 months.
Founded by Neeraj Jain and Nikhil Nahar in 2015, SolarSquare was rolled out as a business-to-business (B2B) solar company bootstrapping the business to Rs 100 crore annual topline in five years.
Jain is an IIT Bombay graduate and ex-investment banker from Deutsche Bank, while Nahar is a former R&D executive from Panasonic. In 2020, another IIT Bombay graduate and serial entrepreneur, Shreya Mishra, joined SolarSquare as the third co-founder.
SolarSquare is a home-energy brand which designs, installs and finances rooftop solar systems for homes. The company claims that in the last two years it has solarised close to 5,000 homes, helping owners save on average Rs 40,000 per year in power bills.
Currently the startup has presence across Madhya Pradesh, Hyderabad, Maharashtra, Bengaluru, Telangana and Delhi-NCR.
In June, SolarSquare had secured seed funding of $4 million led by Good Capital, with participation from Lowercarbon Capital, Symphony Asia and Nithin Kamath’s Rainmatter.
“Our mission is to accelerate the mass adoption of rooftop solar among Indian homes. We deeply understand the pain points that a consumer currently faces while switching to solar and we are building highly consumer-centric solar solutions for them,” Jain said.
“As India aims to achieve its rising energy needs, and also deliver on aggressive emission targets, solar generation offers tremendous potential. SolarSquare’s full stack business model and product innovations provide a high-quality experience to consumers and lay the foundation of building a tech-first home energy brand,” said Mukul Arora, partner at Elevation Capital.
Elevation Capital (formerly SAIF Partners) is a venture capital and growth-equity investment firm that typically chases investments in sectors such as consumer products and services, technology, media, education, telecom, financial services, healthcare, travel and tourism and manufacturing. It invests between $2 million and $75 million in one or more rounds in its portfolio companies.
In April, VCCircle reported that Elevation had raised $670 million for its fifth India-focussed vehicle.
Meanwhile, Lowercarbon Capital is co-founded by veteran investor Chris Sacca, known for his early investments in Uber, Instagram, Twitter and Stripe.
Investment in renewable energy in India reached a record $14.5 billion in the last fiscal (2021-22), an increase of 125 per cent compared to FY2020-21 and 72 per cent over the pre-pandemic FY2019-20, a new report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) said.
