Australia's Future Fund leads $40m round for India solar firm

Set up in 2008 by Vinod Kumar Agarwal, Kapil Kumar Kathpalia and Neeraj Saxena, Delhi-based AST provides off-grid solar power to the telecom and banking industries, supplying energy to telecom towers and ATMs. The company offers a hybrid energy solution that uses a combination of solar photo voltaic, battery back-up, and diesel generators.

AST initially raised an undisclosed amount from BVP and US VC Menlo Park in 2009. It then received a $21 million round led by IFC with participation from BVP in 2010. BVP and IFC then returned to invest $24.5 million alongside Capricorn Investment Group in 2012.

"We are currently the country's largest distributed solar power company with approximately 4,000 locations commissioned in terrains such as Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan," Kathpalia Saxena told LiveMint.

The government is currently looking to raise India's solar power capacity to 100 gigawatts (GW) by 2022 from around 3 GW now. It is estimated that about $100 billion in investment is required to achieve this target. The deal represents one of a handful of transactions that have taken place in India's solar space in the past 12 months. 

Other deals - all of which involve development finance institutions like IFC - include: a INR2 billion ($32.7 million) commitment to SolarArise India Projects by Kotak Mahindra Group and European Investment Bank Group; a $140 million investment in wind energy firm ReNew Power by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Global Environment Fund (GEF) and Goldman Sachs; and a $50 million commitment to the renewable energy division of Welspun Group by ADB.

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• Topics
• Cleantech
• Infrastructure
• South Asia
• Expansion
• Cleantech
• Infrastructure
• India
• Future Fund
• IFC
• energy
• Growth capital