New Delhi
Orb Energy, which provides clean energy solutions including financing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), plans to raise around $50 million, or roughly ₹435 crore at today’s exchange rate, to expand its installed solar power capacity.
The Bangalore-based company has so far installed more than 300 megawatts (MW) of solar power capacity and sold around 1.7 lakh systems to residential, commercial, and industrial customers. It is among the top domestic firms in the roof top solar segment.
Damian Miller, Co-founder and CEO of Orb Energy, told businessline “We want to raise around $50 million. Of this, $20 million will be through equity and another $30 million through debt.”
So far, Orb Energy has raised around $40 million with the share divided almost equally between debt and equity.
Expansion plans
“Hopefully this will be our final fundraiser, Series D. We hope to close it somewhere around April-May. That will put in new money specifically for more solar parks,” Miller said.
Orb Energy’s first 35 MW solar park for SMEs in Arsikere, Karnataka, is sold out and will be fully commissioned in the current calendar year. It is also investing in a second solar park in Karnataka with an installed capacity of 50 MW.
“The next park is in Gulbarga. We have started to procure land. Common infra will be in place by around July-August 2025,” Miller said.
The company wants to replicate the success of its first solar park for SMEs. It plans to add another 300 MW of capacity going ahead besides the 100 MW already in pipeline. For this, Orb Energy is looking at Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
“We want to immediately move into Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and AP, where we have good rooftop customers already and we are also raising money for our in-house finance,” he explained.
SME focus
Starting in 2007, Orb Energy is among the first few entrants who were convinced about the growth prospects of solar power.
About the focus on SMEs, Miller said “We saw that the SME market was not being touched by power purchase agreements (PPAs) because SMEs are largely unrated. If you’re not triple B plus rated and above, you don’t gain access to a PPA. The big open space was SMEs.”
“Since we had served the off grid market already for about 6-7 years, we had a big network of sales people and technicians through whom we had better reach to the SMEs than most companies. That’s why we identified them as a segment. For more than 10 years now, we’ve targeted the SME and 90 per cent of our revenue now comes from there.”
Miller emphasised that back in the day raising finances for rooftop solar projects was virtually impossible. This led Orb Energy to devise a go-to-market strategy offering consumers a full stack of services.
“If we get it right, then that’s a really seamless proposition to offer. I can bring you the system, design it, install it, service it, and I’ll also get you the finance. We launched it about 7 years ago. We managed to get through Covid lending to SMEs. I mean, I didn’t even have 1 per cent of portfolio risk over 90 days during Covid. That’s how strong the SME proposition is for solar,” he noted.