Pentagreen Capital, manager of the Green Investments Partnership (GIP), a strategy under Singapore’s Financing Asia’s Transition Partnership (FAST-P) initiative, and Candi Solar, a clean energy company specialising in distributed solar solutions for commercial and industrial (C&I) businesses, have announced the signing of a US$50 million financing partnership.
The transaction will finance approximately 400 MWp of solar and battery energy storage projects in India, expanding access to clean energy for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This segment remains underserved in terms of renewable energy access, despite accounting for 31% of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 35% of its manufacturing output. The partnership will also support Candi Solar’s expansion plans, including its objective to more than double its total capacity to exceed 1 GW over the next 24 months.
Marat Zapparov, CEO of Pentagreen Capital, said, “India’s growing energy demand and need to reduce oil imports make the transition to clean energy both a strategic and an economic priority. Pentagreen Capital, under Singapore’s FAST-P initiative, is honoured to partner with Candi, whose flexible solar and storage solutions are tailored to the needs of India’s SMEs. Together, we are unlocking finance for projects that make clean energy accessible to an underserved segment, help businesses stabilise their energy costs, and strengthen India’s energy security.”
Fabio Eucalipto, Co-founder and Director of Candi Solar, said, “The climate crisis demands an energy transition that reaches far beyond large corporations to the millions of smaller businesses that power India’s economy and drive its industrial growth. These companies should benefit from clean, reliable energy without the burden of mastering energy complexities or making major capital commitments. At Candi, we have spent years building a customer-first model to make this possible. By combining rooftop and ground-mounted open-access solutions with flexible financing, we can deliver tailored energy solutions at scale. Our partnership with Pentagreen is an important milestone and the first building block in our next phase of growth. Together with recent additional shareholder commitments and an equity round planned for early next year, the capital will help us accelerate towards installing more than 1 GW of operational solar capacity within the next 24 months, bringing clean energy to hundreds more businesses across India.”
The financing facility will support rooftop, ground-mounted and open-access solar installations paired with battery energy storage systems (BESS) across key business hubs in India. These projects are expected to generate approximately 560 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of renewable energy annually, supporting the decarbonisation of 227 commercial and industrial customers, 78% of which are SMEs. The projects are also estimated to avoid approximately 397,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
The partnership comes as India continues to pursue its target of achieving 500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030 while promoting battery energy storage to accelerate the decarbonisation of its power sector. According to NITI Aayog’s Roadmap for Green Transition of MSMEs, SMEs in India account for approximately 135 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions annually, largely due to fossil fuel-based energy use. Expanding access to financing for this segment is therefore important to supporting India’s clean energy transition.
Under Candi Solar’s turnkey shared-value model, customers can preserve their capital by paying only for the clean energy generated, while the company manages engineering, construction and long-term operational performance. The model enables SMEs to adopt renewable energy without upfront capital expenditure and helps businesses manage energy costs while reducing exposure to fluctuations in diesel and grid electricity prices.
Headquartered in Singapore, Pentagreen Capital is a sustainable infrastructure debt financing platform established by HSBC and Temasek, focused on accelerating sustainable infrastructure development across Asia. Its financing strategy under FAST-P supports investments in renewable energy, energy storage and other green infrastructure sectors.
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, Candi Solar provides distributed solar and battery storage solutions for commercial and industrial enterprises across India and South Africa. The company has contracted more than 340 MW across over 185 installations and has secured over US$200 million in cumulative capital from development finance institutions and infrastructure investors.
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