IIM-Lucknow Incubated Skilancer Raises Seed Funding for its Robotic Water-less Solar Panel Cleaners

Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM-Lucknow) incubated startup, Skilancer solar, which designs and manufactures automatic robotic, self-powered, water-less Solar Module cleaners for decentralized, rooftop, and utility scale solar power plants, has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Alfa Ventures, a proprietary fund launched by angel investor Dhianu Das, reported VC Circle.

Founded in 2017, Manish Das and Neeraj Kumar (IIT Jodhpur alumni), Skilancer will use the funds raised in upgrading its product design and technology as well as in building its team and expand geographically.

Skilancer is a centrally controlled, self-powered, robot for automatic cleaning of solar panels with elements of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Incubated at L-incubator of IIM Lucknow, Skilancer raised pre-seed funding from there in March last year. L- Incubator at IIM, Lucknow houses business startups and provides them with seed funding, office space, mentorship, and networking opportunities with various investors.

According a recent research report, the global solar panel cleaning systems market estimated to grow with a CAGR of 7.5% during the forecast period from 2018 to 2026. After 2018, the year of uncertainty for a global solar panel as well as generation market, 2019 has already begun to show a positive outlook. The global installed solar PV capacity is expected to cross 1 Trillion watts in the next 4 years.

Solar Panel Cleaning Robot in particular has been the major product in the Other Solar Energy Related Products market over the past year, and it was very popular in India, United States, Turkey, Australia and UAE. according to Alibaba sales & inventory, India, with 21.93% leads the market shares of these countries. The US is second with 14.06% market share foolowed by Turkey:3.82%, Australia:3.77%, UAE:2.76% and rest have 53.66% share

Dhianu Das, Founder, Alfa Ventures commented, “I am absolutely bullish on India’s solar energy story. New installations in 2019 will reach nearly 14 gigawatts. This is about 50% more than the capacity added last year. This is where I see potential for a business like Skilancer Solar.”

Source: indianweb2