Solar-DC solutions startup Cygni Energy has raised US$ 6.4 million through a combination of equity funding, led by venture capital firm, Endiya Partners, and debt from IndusInd Bank. It manufactures solar controllers and plans to utilize the capital to increase its production capacity, R&D capabilities and market reach.
Sharing Cygni Energy’s production capacity plans with pv magazine, CEO Venkat Rajaraman said, “We are looking at expanding our capacity by 300% by end of H1 2019. Our current production capacity is at 4,000 units per month and we are planning to double it by December 2018, and then expand it to 12,000 units by H1 2019 to cater to the existing/future orders.”
In terms of sales, Cygni plans to more than double the number of units sold from 20,000 completed to date, to 55,000 this fiscal. Its R&D is spread between Chennai and Hyderabad, and recognized by the government of India’s Department for Scientific & Industrial Research. The investment in R&D will primarily involve developing new technology-enabled products for solar-DC and streamlining the product lifecycle.
“Currently, Cygni operates in ten states of India, and plans to expand to all the states in India by the end of the current fiscal. Cygni has aggressive global expansion plans too. It is looking to expand in south-east Asia towards the end of current year and Sub Saharan Africa in the next financial year,” shared Rajaraman.
To lead its aggressive expansion plans, Cygni has roped in Paramjit Singh as chief operating officer, who earlier served as circle chief technology officer with Airtel. The startup has also received a grant from Millennium Alliance (FICCI in partnership with USAID, TDB and the World Bank) for developing solar-DC microgrid systems.
It posted annual revenues of US$ 7.8 million for the financial year 2018, and is looking at a buoyant growth of 300-400% in the next fiscal.
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