Shocking To See How The Small-Scale, Decentralized Rooftop Solar Market Was Ignored

Pyse is a web-based investment platform that allows retail investors to invest their savings in sustainable projects that create social and environmental impact. The company is helmed by two young entrepreneurs Kaustubh Padakannaya and Vinay Mantha, who are using their tech background to solve climate change. Kaustubh Padakannaya is an impact-focused entrepreneur that works at the intersection of climate action and technology with three patents filed in the Blockchain, AR, and VR space. With the determination of building a profitable purpose that helps bring sustainability to the mainstream and scale it, PYSE was developed to help enlighten newer solutions that help repair or enhance the quality of life in this ecosystem and scale up solutions that are crucial in comparing climate change.

Co-founder Vinay is an inventor in the Blockchain space with a patent filed for a secure distributed communication protocol. He is experienced in building technology architectures to support products that deliver true value.

Did you start pyse to focus on investors in the renewable and EV sector or to provide developers funding options?

Vinay Mantha: EV and Renewable energy projects were considered great financial instruments for more than 10+ years among HNIs. Pyse is a way to democratize that and allow the average Indian to participate it. The idea is to bridge the gap between green solutions that need financing and investors who are looking for meaningful avenues to grow their money. Investors and assets are 2 equally important and interdependent pieces of the puzzle we are solving.

How many projects have you funded so far? Any breakup ?

Vinay Mantha: We have financed more than 35+ crores rupees of green projects till date. Solar makes up nearly 80% of the portfolio and 20% is amd eup of EVs and EV ancillaries.

What is the minimum project size you consider? The minimum ticket size for an investor can be as low as Rs 5,000, we understand.

Vinay Mantha: We really like the decentralized rooftop space, and take projects as low as 50KW as well. Our average project size is nearly 250KW, and the largest we have done is a 5MW open access project in Karnataka. The idea is to break up a project into smaller fractions, no matter the size to make it accessible to Indian retail investors.

Are there any similar or broadly similar firms working elsewhere?

Vinay Mantha: While Pyse is a one of its kind company in the country that creates a profit-centric impact investment platform. there are organizations internationally that have tried making impact investments accessible, but the popular ones are mostly philanthropic in nature.

What is your three-year and 5-year expectation from pyse?

Vinay Mantha: While the company aims to expand its services to more and more retailers, PYSE has a goal of closing 150+ crore rupees in AUM  by 2023, while offsetting nearly 10 crore KGs of carbon. The idea is to expand and provide other green assets access to the impact capital coming in from our retail investors.

What is the typical IRR you look at when evaluating projects? 

Vinay Mantha: Before we list any projects for investments on the platform, we perform thorough due diligence to see if it really fits our theme of performance, revenue and sustainability parameters. Assets that are listed are given a seal of “pyse verified” for you to know that these are quality projects.

The IRRs of the projects are subject to our risk assessment of projects and can range anywhere between 9-12% tax-free.

Any insights from considering the projects in the segments that you have evaluated so far? By insights, we mean something you discovered that was contrary to assumptions before you entered the segment.

Vinay Mantha: Project developers absolutely love large scale/utility scale projects to have their dry powder deployed. When we entered the space, we were told the same line by almost every EPC player in the market. What was shocking to see is how the small-scale, decentralized rooftop market was almost completely ignored. And that’s exactly what fascinated us the most. Many AAA marquee clients who want to go solar through rooftop opex didn’t have developers willing to finance the projects because of the smaller capacity. With retail investors and their smaller ticket sizes, we were able to leverage an untapped and almost completely ignored market segment in the rooftop solar space.

How big is the market in your view for your venture? Are you bootstrapped or investor funded? Any plans to raise funding?

Vinay Mantha: We are looking at a $200 billion green asset market in India and a $1 trillion + market internationally by 2026. The opportunity size is massive on the supply side for us, and the appetite to diversify one’s portfolio through market-independent instruments like ours guarantees retail investor offtake. The timing is key as well. Everyone today acknowledges the harm caused by climate change but doesn’t have an avenue to contribute to climate action in an affordable, accessible, and meaningful way. Pyse was created to address that exact issue through a product that’s good for people, profits, and the planet.

Any other facts you would like to share?

• Many of our investors, started adopting some of the solutions they invested in, in their own lives. By buying EVs, shifting to solar, and more
• We have offset more than 17 lakh KGs of CO2 to date
• We are building India’s first and largest solar power plant in Karnataka