The company had announced a ₹30 Cr seed round in June this year led by Good Capital, along with participation from Lowercarbon, Symphony Asia, Rainmatter, Better Capital and GoMassive.
In the last 2 years the company has solarised close to 5,000 homes, helping owners save on average Rs. 40,000 per year in electricity bills. Alongside savings, each home also offsets 4 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year by switching to cleaner solar power.
While currently a fragmented and unorganized market, SolarSquare aims to create a trusted residential solar brand on the back of standardized installation quality, professional services and easy EMI financing for consumers.
The start-up introduced for the first time in India modular and prefabricated rooftop solar installation designs which are durable, standardized and 100% rust-proof. These prefabricated systems get installed within just 8 hours on a home-roof compared to 3-5 days installation time as per industry standard.
Today, the start-up is operating in Bengaluru, Delhi, Gujarat, Hyderabad, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. With this round of financing, they will expand pan-India in the next 18-24 months. SolarSquare plans to invest extensively in giving a seamless experience to its customers with product innovations in installation designs, launching its in-house NBFC to give 5-min loan approvals to residential solar buyers. The company also plans to develop technology across the board such as – a consumer app for monitoring solar electricity generation, building robust back-end technology dashboards across the customer journey – from order booking to installation, and merchant side apps for installation and sales partners.
Founded by Neeraj Jain, IIT Bombay graduate and Nikhil Nahar, ex-Panasonic in 2015, the company bootstrapped till 2020 as a commercial rooftop solar solutions provider. In 2020, third co-founder Shreya Mishra, a serial entrepreneur and IIT Bombay graduate joined the company as it decided to foray and eventually pivot into the consumer residential solar segment.
Shreya Mishra, founder and CEO of SolarSquare, said, “Our mission is to accelerate the mass adoption of rooftop solar among Indian homes. We deeply understand the pain points that a consumer currently faces while switching to solar and we are building highly consumer-centric solar solutions for them. Our mantra is to “Simplify Solar” and enable more homes to switch to cheaper, reliable and greener solar power”
Chris Sacca, billionaire venture investor and founder of Lowercarbon said, “Solar is now much cheaper and cleaner than digging up and burning old dinosaur bones, so putting it on your roof just makes sense, especially in a part of the world with as much sun as India. But getting panels installed wasn’t always easy. We backed Shreya, Neeraj, and Nikhil because they’ve cracked the code on hassle-free rooftop solar.”
Rohan Malhotra, Managing Partner at Good Capital, who led Solar Square’s seed round and re-participated in their Series A said, “We’re thrilled to deepen our partnership with Solar Square as they continue their quest in building India’s leading residential solar brand. We have been incredibly impressed with their pace and quality of execution and the tremendous scale and impact that Solar Square has been able to make in such a short amount of time.”
Mukul Arora, Partner at Elevation Capital said, “As India aims to achieve its rising energy needs, and also deliver on aggressive emission targets, (decentralised) solar generation offers tremendous potential. SolarSquare’s full stack business model and product innovations provide a high quality experience to consumers and lay the foundation of building a tech-first home energy brand. Shreya, Neeraj and Nikhil’s customer obsession and in-depth experience in the solar industry positions them very strongly to become a leading company in the Indian ClimateTech arena, and we are thrilled to partner with them on this journey.”