Distributed solar lender cKers Finance raises $5 million from US investor New Energy Nexus

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New Delhi based clean energy investor cKers Finance has raised $5 million from California’s New Energy Nexus to accelerate the development of new distributed solar segments in India.

cKers Finance—which has so far funded over 45 MW of distributed solar energy assets across 100+ locations all over India—will use the funds to catalyze the growth of residential and commercial solar systems, solar pumps, floating solar, solar cold chains and the like.

Part of the proceeds will also be invested in emerging energy service company models (ESCO) that promote energy efficiency.

New Energy Nexus made the investment through the cKers Finance Sustainable Energy Bond (SEB).

“SEBs are specialized instruments that allow investors to have exposure exclusively to sustainable energy assets. Unlike traditional green bond issuances, SEBs are viable at smaller scales, which helps catalyze collaborative action and investments that are imperative to raising capital for distributed clean energy around the world,” commented Shilpa Patel, Director of Mission Investing at the ClimateWorks Foundation, an advisor to New Energy Nexus.

“The falling cost of solar technology is democratizing availability of energy through distributed solutions. We are very excited to grow our partnership with cKers Finance, which has developed innovative financing products suited to the needs of these segments. Overall, they have helped deploy over $30 million in the last 24 months. Our fund has invested a total of $5 million into cKers Finance, which we think is excellent leverage to accelerate the development of new distributed solar segments,” added New Energy Nexus chief energy officer Danny Kennedy.

cKers Finance has developed a range of financing products for emerging developers, renewable energy service companies (RESCOs), and clean-technology companies to enable them to grow.

“Our specialty is in being able to do smaller ticket-sizes, which most traditional financiers shy away from. And this year we are piloting even smaller ticket-sizes, for small and medium enterprises,” said cKers Finance Director and CIO Pawan Mehra.

 

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