Off-Grid Solar Solutions Provider SolarHome Raises $1 Million Equity Funding from Trirec

SolarHome secured its first debt funding from online platform lender Kiva in October 2017

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Singapore-based startup SolarHome, a Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) solar solutions provider for off-grid households in Myanmar, has secured another $1 million equity from its existing investor Trirec.

In 2018, Trirec was joined by Insitor Impact Asia, Bee Next, and a group of Singapore-based family offices when it invested $4.2 million in SolarHome in a convertible note offering, including the Japanese cross-border crowdfunding platform Crowd Credit. In December last year, Solar Home again raised an additional $10 million debt financing from investors including Sweden-based cross border crowdfunding platform Trine. This current funding is a follow-on financing that’s a part of Solar Home’s Series A.

SolarHome, which was launched in 2017, has been seeded by fintech venture builder FORUM and has core operations in Myanmar with 20 branches in four regions. The company says it has installed over 30,000 solar home systems in the country, adding that it aims to reach up to 100,000 home installations by the end of 2019.

Mercom previously reported when 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 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 had 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 underdeveloped 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 exponential growth, raising a whopping $243 million.

Soumik is a staff reporter at Mercom India. Prior to joining Mercom, Soumik was a correspondent for UNI, New Delhi covering the Northeast region for seven years. He has also worked as an Asia Correspondent for Washington DC-based Hundred Reporters. He has contributed as a freelancer to several national and international digital publications with a focus on data-based investigative stories on environmental corruption, hydro power projects, energy transition and the circular economy. Soumik is an Economics graduate from Scottish Church College, Calcutta University.

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