New Delhi, OCT 08 :
Orb Energy, a provider of solar energy solutions, is looking to raise $15 million (over Rs 100 crore) debt this year to augment its capital base.
The company, last week, raised an undisclosed amount from Shell’s New Energies business by divesting an almost 20% stake in the firm in a Series C round of funding.
The fresh investment will help the company to extend finance to small and medium enterprises, a largely underserved part of the market, to go for installation of solar power. Orb Energy offers SMEs credit to invest in their own rooftop solar systems, driving Orb Energy’s growth in sales.
“The latest round of funding will enable us to increase our portfolio of financing SMEs. During the current financial year, we are looking at extending Rs 50 crore to SMEs,” Damian Miller, Chief Executive Officer, Orb Energy told DH.
“We are already in talks with many Indian banks to raise debt. We expect to close the deal by end of the current fiscal,” Miller said.
Shell’s investment will power the next phase of our growth and ensure that more underserved SMEs in India can benefit from clean, lower-cost electricity from solar,” he added.
Orb manufactures its own solar panels and provides integrated solutions for rooftop solar electricity generation systems, largely to SMEs. Since its inception in 2006, Orb has sold more than 160,000 solar systems in India with cumulative installations of 65 MW of rooftop solar systems. It imports solar cells from Taiwan and assembles them into solar PV panels at its factory in Yeshwantpur.
