SolarHome, a Singapore based Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) off-grid solar solutions provider in southeast Asia, raised $1 million in convertible note offering recently.

The funding has been provided by impact venture capital firm, Insitor Impact Asia Fund.

The company has raised $5 million so far and is now looking to use the raised funds for its expansion in markets like Myanmar. SolarHome also intends to offer more premium products and enter south-east Asian markets such as Indonesia and Cambodia by next year.

In February 2018, SolarHome had announced that it raised $1.2 million in convertible note offering, having secured its seed capital from FORUM, one of the largest financial technology venture builder in Asia. Some of its other investors included Beenext, X Capital Ventures, and angel investor Koh Boon Hwee.

PAYG financing is bringing solar products within reach of more consumers and has the potential to revolutionize consumer financing in emerging markets across a much wider spectrum of products.

So far, the company has installed more than 15,000 homes with its off-grid solar systems.

SolarHome secured its first debt funding from online platform lender Kiva in October 2017, shortly after having closed an oversubscribed pre-Series A equity funding round of $625,000 led by impact venture capital firm Uberis Capital.

According to the World Bank, the global PAYG solar industry has attracted over $773 million in funding over the last five years. The estimated impact of these investments has been far reaching, with approximately $5.2 billion in economic savings to households as they switch from conventional fuels to off-grid solar devices.

In January 2018, Mercom reported that the off-grid solar solutions have benefited approximately 360 million people across the globe, according to a report by the World Bank Group’s Lighting Global Program, Dalberg Advisors, and the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (GOGLA).

Off-grid solar has a bright future in poor and under developed parts of the world and the funding towards these emerging markets has also witnessed a significant increase over the years. According to Mercom’s Solar Funding and M&A Reports, the global off-grid solar market saw deals worth $97 million in the year 2015. Approximately $147 million were raised in 2016 and in the year 2017, the sector witnessed an exponential growth, raising a whopping $243 million.

Nitin is a staff reporter at Mercomindia.com and writes on renewable energy and related sectors. Prior to Mercom, Nitin has worked for CNN IBN, India News, Agricultural Spectrum and Bureaucracy Today. He received his bachelor’s degree in Journalism & Communication from Manipal Institute of Communication at Manipal University and Master’s degree in International Relations from Jindal School of International Affairs. More articles from Nitin Kabeer