The project financier is actively building its portfolio in other decentralized renewable energy segments including micro-grids. This was revealed by Jayant Prasad, Executive Director, on the sidelines of ‘Intersolar India' just concluded in Mumbai.
“Our aim is to make debt available to companies in newer sustainable energy segments as they grow and need to leverage their equity. We specialize in making project finance viable at a small scale; and are developing innovative asset-backed financing approaches, including securitized structures,” comments Pawan Mehra, Director of cKers Finance. “Our aim is to grow our deployment 3x in the next 6 months as we continue to deepen our relationships with companies operating in different Sustainable Energy segments.”
cKers Finance was launched earlier this year and is providing debt capital between Rs. 20 million and Rs. 150 milllion. It is backed by global sustainability firm cKinetics, cleantech catalyst Infuse Ventures, and IIM Ahmedabad's Center for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship.
“We see an opportunity to plug the debt gap for several sustainable energy companies that are operating in new spaces. These companies have been adequately equity funded, and mainstream investors are looking for someone else to come in first. cKers Finance will fill that gap,” reasons Kunal Upadhyay, CEO of Infuse Ventures.
Over the last year, cKers Finance was selected as a PACESetter, an award constituted by the Indian and U.S. government, for its differentiated approach to providing competitive project finance and long-term venture debt financing for interventions. cKers Finance has also been selected by the Climate Finance Lab to develop a Sustainable Energy Bond to bring more capital into the space.
“Our cross-functional team has extensive experience in financing DRE (Decentralized Renewable Energy) and Energy Efficiency projects. We have developed customized frameworks to underwrite loans in these segments and innovative asset-backed financing approaches,” shares Jayant Prasad, Executive Director of cKers Finance. “In select projects, we also operate as a co-developer.”
