Delhi-based solar power company Applied Solar Technologies India Pvt Ltd has secured $40 million in a fresh round of funding led by the Australian government’s sovereign wealth fund Future Fund Management Agency.
All existing investors namely Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP), Capricorn Investment Group and International Finance Corp (IFC), the private sector lending arm of the World Bank, also participated in this round.
In a response to an emailed query, Future Fund's spokesperson said “We can confirm the Future Fund invested alongside our manager Bessemer Venture Partners.” Future Fund is a limited partner (LP) in BVP.
Separate email sent to Applied Solar Technologies however did not elicit any response by the time of publishing this article.
Mint was the first to report that Applied Solar Technologies has raised $40 million from Future Fund and existing investors.
The fresh investment, which closed last month, is the fourth round of funding by Applied Solar Technologies to date.
Founded in 2008 by Vinod Kumar Agarwal, Kapil Kumar Kathpalia and Neeraj Saxena, Applied Solar Technologies had initially raised an undisclosed amount from BVP and California-based venture capital firm Menlo Park in 2009.
Later on, it raised $21 million in a second round of funding led by IFC with participation from BVP in 2010, followed by another investment of $24.5 million in 2012 from BVP, IFC and Skoll Foundation-backed Capricorn Investment Group.
Applied Solar Technologies provides off-grid solar power to the telecom and banking sectors. The firm uses a combination of solar photo voltaic, battery back-up and diesel generator making it a hybrid energy solution.
It offers alternative power sources to telecom operators and banks which often rely on diesel-based power generation for infrastructure such as telecom towers and ATMs.
In the space, another Delhi-based firm SunTerrace Energy, a developer of solar energy plants, raised an undisclosed amount last month from US-based Sunergy Investors LLC.
