Indian Startup Solarsquare Secures 40 Million Investment Pledge To Power Every Home With Solar Energy

Mumbai-based startup SolarSquare has raised $40 million in its largest venture round to date, led by Lightspeed Ventures. This substantial investment marks a major milestone for the company, which aims to empower millions of Indian households with clean energy.

Founded five years ago as a bootstrapped business, SolarSquare initially focused on corporate customers before shifting its attention to residential solar installations in 2021. Today, the startup has scaled to power over 20,000 homes and 200 housing societies across India, making it the country’s largest operator of distributed solar assets.

The company guarantees returns on investments and compensates customers if their systems don’t deliver, making its full-stack service – from designing and selling systems to installing them, securing permits, financing, and offering after-sales services – more compelling than ever. SolarSquare’s system costs around $1,500, with a promise of 5,000 units of electricity from solar. If the customer ends up receiving only 4,000 units, SolarSquare will pay back the difference.

India’s government has played a pivotal role in surging interest in solar energy over the past few years, with incentives such as production-linked incentives, basic customs duty exemptions, and viability gap funding schemes. These initiatives aim to accelerate solar adoption, with India setting an ambitious target of achieving 500 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2030.

The demand for solar is no longer limited to major cities, with a surge of interest from Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 cities, as well as rural India. SolarSquare plans to deploy its fresh funds to expand into an additional 30 cities, while maintaining quality control by working with local partners in smaller cities.

The investment comes at an opportune time, with the Indian government having recently made net-metering a consumer right. This shift has significantly reduced permit processing times, making it easier for homeowners to adopt solar energy.

“India is leading the charge in embracing clean energy,” said Rahul Taneja, Lightspeed partner. India is witnessing rapid growth in recent years, and SolarSquare aims to build better systems for monitoring and managing residential solar installations remotely.

The $40 million funding round is Lightspeed’s latest investment in an Indian startup, with the firm having invested in 20 ventures so far this year alone.