Renewable energy company Orient Green Power Ltd has raised $55 million
in a private equity funding round led by Olympus Capital. While Olympus has invested $35 million, Bessemer Venture Partners and Shriram EPC have invested $10 million each. Orient was formed as a joint venture between Shriram EPC and Bessemer in 2006, with both the
companies pooling in $20 million in equity capital.
The new funds raised by the firm will be used to develop and acquire renewable power generation projects. The firm develops projects based on resources such as biomass, biogas, cogeneration, wind and small hydro. Orient has developed projects with a capacity of 70 MW and is
implementing projects with capacity of 146 MW. These projects sell power under long term power purchase agreements. Orient also sells the Certified Emission Reductions, which are climate credits (or carbon credits) issued by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Executive Board.
This is the first investment by Olympus Capital in cleantech sector in India. Olympus is a Asia focused private equity fund and its investments in India include Raman Roy's Quattro BPO and crane hiring company Sanghvi Movers. It recently moved Gaurav Malik, who is the
managing director for its India operations, from it's Hong Kong office to Gurgaon.
Investments In Cleantech Sector
Venture capital funds in India have been stepping up their investments in the cleantech and renewable energy space. Recently, KPCB and Sherpalo Ventures invested $8 million in renewable energy company Kotak Urja Pvt Ltd. Deeya Energy Inc, a cleantech company focused on developing and manufacturing novel energy storage systems, raised $22.5 million in two rounds of funding from NEA, DFJ and BlueRun Venture. On the waste management side, Kam-Avida Enviro Engineers and Attero Recycling, raised funding from Peepul Capital and DFJ & NEA-IndoUS respectively.
There also have been a couple of big ticket deals in past two months. Moser Baer PhotoVoltaic, a fully owned subsidiary of Moser Baer raised $92.5 million in second round of funding, from a consortium of investors including Nomura, IDFC PE, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. Trans-India Acquisition Corporation, a blank check firm, also announced its reverse merger with Hyderabad-based photovoltaic (PV) modules maker Solar Semiconductors Ltd. TIL will acquire at least an 80% stake for $375 million.