Skilancer Solar Pvt. Ltd, a startup that provides robotic cleaning systems for solar panels of commercial parks and establishments, has raised an undisclosed sum from incubator and accelerator Venture Catalysts.
IIM Lucknow-incubated Skilancer will use the funding it has raised to invest in design and technology upgrades, as well as geographical expansion and hiring talent, co-founder Manish Das said.
“The funding will help Skilancer realise its ambition of becoming a renowned brand and the go-to name in the clean-tech sector through its next-generation technological and innovation-based solutions,” Venture Catalysts co-founder Apoorv Ranjan Sharma said.
The startup was founded by Das and Neeraj Kumar. The former has over 10 years of experience as an instrumentation engineer, while the latter has spent three years in the solar industry.
The company says that it also intends to expand its product services to customers such as solar plant owners, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors and solar companies.
Venture Catalysts
Set up in December 2015 by Sharma, Golecha, Anil Jain and Gaurav Jain, the firm usually invests between $250,000 and $1 million each in an early-stage startup.
The incubator and accelerator said its network of high-net-worth individual investors struck 60 investment deals and 27 exit transactions in 2019.
In August last year, it floated a fund, the 9Unicorns Fund, with a corpus of Rs 300 crore ($43.44 million), to help early-stage Indian startups expand their business. The fund will typically invest Rs 60 lakh for a 5% stake in a startup, and may put in additional Rs 3-5 crore in subsequent funding rounds depending on a company’s ability to meet its growth objectives.
In November, the incubator invested an undisclosed sum in WonDRx, a startup that seeks to bridge the gap between patients and healthcare providers through a data-driven approach. In October, it took part in a $500,000 seed funding round in online dermatology solutions provider Remedico.