New Delhi, Nov. 25 -- Husk Power Systems Inc., a US-headquartered company that builds mini solar grids mainly in India and Nigeria, said Tuesday it has kicked off its Series E round of fundraising to mop up as much as $400 million (about Rs 3,567 crore) in equity and debt capital.
The company intends to use the fresh capital to build out at least 2 gigawatts of distributed solar and battery energy storage systems (BESS) in South and Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa by the end of the decade, it said in a statement.
To date, Husk has raised more than $125 million. It raised Series D funding two years ago when it collected $103 million in debt and equity financing. The company secured $43 million in equity capital from new investors STOA Infra & Energy, the US International Development Finance Corporation and French development financier Proparco, as well as existing investors Shell Ventures, Swedfund and FMO. In addition, it mopped up $60 million in debt from several finance institutions, including the European Investment Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The company was founded in 2008. It raised seed funding in 2009 from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Cisco Systems, according to VCCEdge, the data research arm of VCCircle. The following year, it got funding from IFC and Acumen Fund. In 2012, the company raised $5 million in a round led by Acumen Fund and Bamboo Finance. Shell Ventures led its Series C round in 2018.
On Tuesday, the company also unveiled its AI-driven distributed energy resources (DER) platform to deliver electricity to millions of businesses, households and social institutions in the Global South by 2030.
Husk said its DER platform is focused on communities, businesses and households. Isolated and grid-connected minigrids power entire communities, while commercial and industrial (C&I) and residential customers will be served by standalone rooftop and ground-mounted systems. The platform will also serve health facilities and schools.
"This opens up exciting new growth opportunities to take our nearly 10 years of experience and apply it with even greater impact by deploying 2GW by 2030. It also provides us the flexibility to serve new markets by tailoring DER solutions that best suit each country," said Husk CEO and co-founder Manoj Sinha.
Husk said its DER platform is underpinned by an advanced digital infrastructure that is powered by both predictive and agentic artificial intelligence. It also said that its expansion plans will accelerate Africa's clean energy transition and Mission 300, a World Bank and African Development Bank initiative to electrify 300 million people by 2030.
Husk's platform will also support the India government's target of installing 500GW of non-fossil fuel-based energy capacity by 2030.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.