Azure Power India Pvt Ltd, a New Delhi-based solar energy service provider, has closed its series B round of fund raising by raising $10 million from International Financial Corporation, the private lending arm of the World Bank.
The existing investors, Helion Advisors and Foundation Capital, have also participated in this round, said a company statement. However, the investment amount of Helion and Foundation Capital were not disclosed.
Azure has raised an undisclosed sum its first round of funding in 2008. For IFC, this is the first solar project investment under the newly established cleantech investment program, and its first cleantech investment in South Asia, the statement added.
Azure is an independent power producer, and plans to utilise the fund in its upcoming projects in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat. “We have developed a strong pipeline across several states in India and have very aggressive plans to add distributed generation capacity,” said Inderpreet S Wadhwa, chief executive officer, Azure Power, in the statement.
The company plans to build up several power projects to have a total capacity of 100 MW by 2013, according to the earlier VCCircle report. It has earmarked an investment of $300-400 million for these projects. The company is also looking at other areas such as West Bengal, Maharashtra and Rajasthan and is in talks with the respective governments for developing projects in these regions.
The company currently has an operational project with 5MW capacity in Punjab. It plans to set up plants where there is a deficiency in power supply, focusing on rural and semi-urban areas and are ignored by large projects. The company is currently focusing on the utility business, and plans to foray in commercial projects in the future.
