Greenlight Planet, a company providing solar energy solutions has attracted nearly Rs 34 crore ($5 million) in debt financing via Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), which is a development finance institution backed by the US government.
The recent round of investments have come nearly a year after the company raised $10 million in equity financing in a Series B round that was led by private equity firm Fidelity Growth Partners India. It was rebranded in February 2015 as Eight Roads Ventures. Apart from these, the company has also raised seed funding from Prabhat Sinha, a co-founder of ZS Associates. This was followed by a Series A funding by Bamboo Finance, a Luxembourg-based private equity firm.
The proceeds of the debt financing will be utilised by the company for expanding its distribution capacity and channels in India and the African continent. It will also be used for the further development and roll out of Easy Buy, which is its pay-as-you-go platform. The platform permits customers to purchase solar products over a staggered instalment scheme.
As per Anish Thakkar, chief executive of Greenlight Planet, “Easy Buy is in operation in India, Uganda and Kenya, and we are looking to roll it out in 10 new geographies over the course of the next 12 months.”
Greenlight has claimed that it has made sales of over 4.5 million of its Sun King-branded solar lighting and phone charging devices. The devices have impacted the lives of more than 15 million people living in rural and under-electrified areas. As per Thakkar, Greenlight is targeting to penetrate 30 per cent of off-grid households by 2020.
