List of top 15 solar energy startups, helping India transition to sustainable energy sources

The world is quickly moving towards renewable energy as the pollution levels soar across the world and global warming threatens the planet’s ecosystem. Various measures have been taken by governments across the world to help the transition to clean and renewable sources of energy.

Solar energy is invariably one of the most underutilised clean and renewable sources of energy. The push from the Indian government to transition to cleaner energy sources has opened opportunities for growth in the Indian solar energy sector.

Here is a comprehensive list of top 15 solar energy startups in India, helping the country transition to cleaner energy sources:

ReNew Power

Gurugram-based cleantech startup ReNew Power was founded in 2015 by Sumant Sinha, a former investment banker. Sumant Sinha is the son of former Finance Minister of India Yashwant Sinha and brother of Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation.

The renewable energy startup provides solar and wind energy solutions to boost the adoption of clean energy. It claims to have more than 200 distributed solar installation sites across 35 cities in 16 states and two union territories in India.

ReNew Power last raised $144 million in an equity financing round from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. It backed by prominent investors including Goldman Sachs, Yes Bank, Asian Development Bank, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and Global Environment Fund.

CleanMax Solar

Mumbai-based solar energy startup CleanMax Solar was founded by Sushant Arora, Kuldeep Jain, and Andrew Hines in 2011. The startup provides solar energy solutions like rooftop solar for its clients, in order to help them reduce energy costs, reduce carbon footprint, and achieve sustainability goals.

CleanMax last raised $15 million in a funding round from International Finance Corporation in November 2017. Earlier in July 2017, it raised $100 million in an equity funding round from private equity firm Warburg Pincus.

Azure Power

New Delhi-based clean energy startup Azure Power was founded by Inderpreet Wadhwa in 2008. It offers affordable and clean solar energy to its customers through utility-scale solar power projects. The cleantech startup claims to have more than 190 rooftop portfolio across 23 states in India.

Azure Power last raised $135 million in a post-IPO debt round from International Finance Corporation in June 2018.

Fourth Partner Energy

Hyderabad-based cleantech startup Fourth Partner Energy was founded by Saif Dorajiwala, Vikas Saluguti, and Vivek Subramanian in 2010. It provides turnkey rooftop solar energy solutions to its customers, to help them reduce energy costs and provide sustainable energy solutions.

Fourth Partner Energy raised $70 million in series B round from The Rise Fund in June 2018. Earlier in September 2015, it raised $2 million from Infuse Ventures.

Cygni Energy

Hyderabad-based solar energy startup Cygni Energy was founded in 2015. It offers a novel solar DC solution to provide green solar energy and dc power at affordable costs to its customers. The startup has powered more than 20,000 homes across 10 states in India.

Cygni Energy last raised $6.4 million in a mix of equity and debt funding in 2015. The equity funding was led by venture capital firm Endiya Partners and the debt funding was led by Induslnd Bank.

MYSUN

Noida-based online rooftop solar startup MYSUN was founded by Gagan Vermani and Gyan Prakash Tiwari in 2015. It provides a platform to connect highly-rated solar installers to deliver high quality and best priced solar systems to its customers.

In October 2016, MYSUN raised $2.5 million in series A round led by early and growth stage investment firm General Catalyst.

Orb Energy

Renewable energy startup Orb Energy was founded by Damian Miller and NP Ramesh in 2006, with its headquarter in Bengaluru. It provides affordable off-grid and grid-tied solar rooftop solutions to its customers. It helps small and medium enterprises along with low-income individuals to reduce their electricity bills through their affordable solutions complemented by the collateral-free solar loan.

In January 2018, Orb Energy raised $15 million in a combination of debt and equity funding. It raised $5 million in equity funding led by FMO, an investment firm based in the Netherlands. It further raised $10 million in debt funding from Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC).

Claro Energy

New Delhi-based solar pumping solution provider Claro Energy was founded by Kartik Wahi, Soumitra Mishra, and Gaurav Kumar in 2011. It provides solar-powered water pumping solutions to cater to the agricultural needs of rural farmers like irrigation and drinking water to foster productivity and economic growth.

In February 2015, Claro Energy raised an undisclosed amount of debt funding.

Oorjan

Mumbai-based rooftop solar startup Oorjan Cleantech was founded by IIT Bombay alumni Roli Gupta and Gautam Das in November 2014. The startup provides rooftop solar panels to help its customers bring down energy costs. It also helps its low-income customers to secure easy solar loans through its partnership with IDBI Bank and other banks.

Oorjan Cleantech last raised $450,000 in seed funding led by online venture capital firm Globevestor in October 2017.

Oriano Solar

Mumbai-based cleantech startup Oriano Solar was founded by Sachin Jain, Sameer Shah, and Yeshwant Rao in 2015. It offers turnkey EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) for utility-scale solar power plants, solar farms, and rooftops, to help businesses implement clean solutions and reduce their energy costs.

Oriano last raised $3 million in series A funding from Samridhi Fund, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) in March 2017.

8Minutes

New Delhi-based clean energy startup 8Minutes was founded by Dev Arora, Anuj Gupta, and Arjun Srihari in 2015. The startup offers rooftop solar energy solutions to its customers to help them transition to sustainable and cleaner energy by providing flexible financing options.

So far, the startup has 26 MW of solar assets under deployment, producing 39 million kWh of energy per year.

Nuevosol Energy

Hyderabad-based solar energy startup Nuevosol Energy was founded by IIT graduate Himamshu Popuri in 2011. It provides various rooftop and ground-mounted solar panels for its customers based on their requirements.

Nuevosol Energy has around 60 clients using its services and products across 22 states in India.

India Go Solar

New Delhi-based solar e-commerce marketplace India Go Solar was founded by Dr Harish k Ahuja in 2016. It provides a platform for customers to buy various solar products including solar rooftop kit, solar water pump, solar backpack, solar mobile charger, and a solar panel, among other services and projects.

It aims to enhance the lives of its customers through its extensive product offering, leveraging the clean and renewable solar energy.

Solar91

Jaipur-based cleantech startup Solar91 was founded by Sandeep Gurnani, Prateek Agrawal, Saurabh Vyas, and Dhawal Vasavada in 2015. It leverages cutting-edge solar technologies to provide turnkey EPC solar solutions to its clients, in order to reduce energy costs and transition to clean energy source.

So far, Solar91 has installed around 500KW of power and helped reduce more than 200,000 kgs of Co2 emission.

ONergy Solar

Kolkata-based end-to-end solar solutions provider ONergy Solar was founded by Piyush Jaju and Vinay Jaju in 2009. It offers comprehensive solar solutions including design, engineering, manufacturing, and installation for solar rooftops, solar irrigation pumps, solar lighting, and microgrids.

ONergy Solar’s solutions help its clients to transition to clean and renewable energy, whilst reducing energy costs, to become more efficient.

The government of India has set an ambitious target to achieve 175 GW capacity in renewable energy by 2022, which includes 100 GW of solar power and 60 GW of wind power.

This ambitious target has attracted many Indian startups to leverage the opportunity and grow in the solar energy industry, to help the country speed up the transition to cleaner energies.

Loom Solar

Faridabad based Loom Solar Pvt. Ltd. is a start-up, a manufacturer of Mono Perc solar panels and AC Module. It was started in the year 2018 at Faridabad, Haryana by ex-Luminous executive Amol Anand, Haryana having a manufacturing capacity of 100 MW. The company which started in 2018 has become one of the fastest-growing solar panels manufacturers in India because of a wide range of solar panels from 10 watts to 450 watts super high-efficiency panels. The company which started in 2018 has become one of the fastest-growing solar panel manufacturers in India because of wide range of solar panels from 10 watts to 450 watts super high efficiency panels.

Source: theindianwire