NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, December 7, 2018

SolarHome, a pioneer in Pay-As-You-Go solar for off-grid households in Southeast Asia, has raised US$10 million in debt financing from a consortium of international investors, including Crowdcredit, a cross-border crowdfunding platform based in Japan, and Trine, a Sweden-based crowdfunding platform for off-grid solar. The investment follows on the US$4.2 million in convertible note funding raised in 2018 from international investors, including Trirec, Insitor Impact Asia, Beenext, and a group of Singapore-based family offices.

The new funds will enable SolarHome, which has already installed close to 28,000 solar home systems, to accelerate expansion across Myanmar. Through this expansion, the company aims to reach 100,000 homes with its product packages that include budget, basic and premium solar system bundles for lighting and phone charging purposes, as well as TV bundles.

Ted Martynov, chief executive officer and co-founder of SolarHome, said, “Accessing debt finance on such a scale at this stage in our development has significantly outperformed our expectations. We believe this is a testament to the strength of our professional team, and the relentless focus on operational quality that we bring to the PAYG space in Southeast Asia. The new funding will enable us to accelerate our growth in 2019 and bring clean energy to hundreds of thousands of off-grid households in Myanmar.”

This additional funding represents another important step in the ongoing growth story of SolarHome. The company was founded by FORUM, the Singapore-based largest fintech venture builder in Emerging Asia. SolarHome was recently recognised in CleanTech’s APAC 25 list alongside such regional innovation leaders as Grab, Didi, and Gogoro.

The company has added three new premium products in the last quarter. This product expansion is in line with the company’s aim to impact the overall livelihoods and financial inclusion of those living off-grid in rural Myanmar. SolarHome goes beyond just meeting the customer’s energy needs, but also helps them establish credit histories essential to ultimately accessing financial services and rising up the socio-economic ladder.

Since launching in 2017, SolarHome has established itself as the market leader in PAYG solar systems in Myanmar, installing new systems at a rate of approximately 3,000 units each month.

Photo courtesy of Ken Teegardin.