CleanMax Solar Announces Equity Financing of USD 100 Million from Warburg Pincus

The investment will enable CleanMax Solar to pursue additional growth opportunities beyond India, and provide next generation solutions to the customers through a combination of rooftop solar and energy storage.

CleanMax Solar, India’s largest rooftop solar developer for the corporate sector, today announced that it has secured equity financing of up to USD 100 million from an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm focused on growth investing. CleanMax Solar enjoys 24% market share in India’s booming rooftop solar market (Source: Bridge to India 2017 report) and has numerous marquee clients including the Tata group, the Mahindra group, the TVS group, Carlsberg India, Konecranes India, Carl Zeiss India, Manipal Education and Medical Group, SKF India Limited, Mindtree Limited and Alkem Laboratories Limited. CleanMax will use the funds to continue its rapid growth in the rooftop and open access solar power markets in India, while pursuing growth in select international markets (Middle East and South-East Asia), and growing the nascent, yet promising energy storage solutions business.

Kuldeep Jain, Founder and Managing Director of CleanMax Solar commented, “CleanMax was founded with the mission of being the sustainability partner for corporates. Companies are leading the world in terms of sustainability aspirations, and today solar power can provide savings upwards of thirty percent on a customer’s electricity bills with no investment from the customer. Warburg Pincus was a partner of choice for us as they have fabulous track record of partnering entrepreneurs in India over past twenty years.”

“With this investment, we combine our market leadership in the corporate solar sector with the status of being also the best capitalized company in the space. Our India business has grown from 8 MW in 2014-15 to over 100 MW in 2016-17, and is likely to achieve aggregate capacity of up to 250 MW in 2017-18. Warburg Pincus’ investment will enable us to pursue additional growth opportunities beyond India, and provide next generation solutions to our customers through a combination of rooftop solar and energy storage,” Kuldeep added.

Saurabh Agarwal, a Warburg Pincus Managing Director commented, “CleanMax Solar is a leader in the Indian solar rooftop market, providing customers with cost-efficient and environmentally friendly solutions to meet their energy requirements. We believe that CleanMax, is well poised to benefit from the strong growth tailwinds in the sector, and look forward to working with the management team to build a world class enterprise.”

T.V. Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education Services Pvt. Ltd. said, “The CleanMax Solar team stands out for their growth and performance. For the last 3 years, we have been working with CleanMax as a rooftop solar and sustainability partner for Manipal Education and Medical Group across our Universities and campuses, bringing in-depth knowledge about solar power and innovative solutions to the table. Their execution has been exemplary, quality of service and response is outstanding and pricing very competitive. My best wishes are with the entire CleanMax Solar team for their journey ahead”.

Anish Jhaveri, Founder of Oliphans capital, which was an early investor in CleanMax Solar stated, “I’ve been very impressed by CleanMax Solar’s mission of being a sustainability partner for corporates. They have an impressive team and client roster. I’m confident this raised funds will help them maintain their market leadership position. The reason for our investment was clarity and conviction on scale of opportunity that solar industry presented. It’s all about execution once you have a good set of entrepreneurs – that’s what produces winners in the space”.

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