Finance

Pune-based BatteryPool Raises

Funds from IAN & Others

Pune-based BatteryPool has raised an undisclosed amount of growth capital as part of its seed funding round. The startup offers battery charging solutions for EV fleets and commercial vehicles.

The round was led by Indian Angel Network (IAN) and the Pune-based Venture Center under the NIDHI-Seed Support Scheme, and lead investors, including Arjun Seth and Harshavardhan Chitale, participated in this round. Previously, the company had raised grants from the Department of Science and Technology (GoI) and an angel round along with the 100X.VC investment.

The freshly infused capital will be utilised to scale up BatteryPool’s business development efforts and add new fleet charging products to its portfolio, said the firm in an official statement.

Ashwin Shankar, Founder of BatteryPool, said, “We identified that while EVs made sense commercially, challenges around battery charging can lead to downtime of commercial and fleet electric vehicles. Battery swapping can serve as a viable option to eliminate this downtime.”

“However, existing battery swapping services require fleet operators and drivers to conform to a certain battery standard and this can be expensive and significantly restrict the fleet operations to where these services are being offered,” he said.

“Therefore, we built hardware that is agnostic to battery type and can be used by fleet operators regardless of the battery standards being used in their fleets. Our key focus is to cater to EV fleet operators and commercial electric vehicles via partnerships with OEMs, and battery pack manufacturers. We appreciate the support of our vision by IAN and marquee investors,” Shankar added.

BatteryPool states that at present it is solving a key challenge via its flagship product: developing a smart batteryswapping station for fleet and commercial EVs. The swapping station is battery agnostic and software-enabled, allowing fleets and commercial EV drivers to swap their batteries and eliminate any downtime caused by charging their vehicles. The firm’s customers include some of the largest two- and three-wheeler EV fleets.

Arjun Seth, Lead Investor at IAN, said, “The EV ecosystem in India is evolving rapidly. The use case of going electric is well-known as running costs for fleet operators’ contracts. By 2030, the fleet and commercial vehicle charging market size is set to reach $2.7 billion, as these will become electrified.”

“BatteryPool is walking on a path to capture a huge opportunity with India witnessing a rapid shift to electric mobility in the two and three-wheeler segment, which is where EV adoption will see tremendous velocity. We will offer our proprietary software and hardware solutions and embrace a collaborative platform as we build on our partnerships with OEMs and fleet operators,” added Seth.

Founded in 2018, the startup’s tech stack provides real-time, actionable insights to fleet operators to eliminate operational challenges in running EVs and improve utilisation of the vehicles.

BatteryPool claims to have recently signed large contracts/POs with one of India’s largest e-rickshaw fleets. It is also planning to introduce Smart Plug-In chargers for fleet/commercial EVs without swappable battery packs in the near future.

Adani Green Raises $750 M for Projects in Pipeline

Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) has priced its maiden ListCo senior issuance of $750 million through a 3-year issuance under the 144A / Reg S format, at a fixed coupon of 4.375%.

The issuance was oversubscribed by 4.7 times. This issuance establishes AGEL as India’s leading credit in the renewable sector with a robust and well defined capital management plan, said the company in an official statement.

The funds will be utilised towards equity funding of the capex for underlying renewable projects under construction by AGEL. Under the structure, AGEL can draw upto $1,700 million (including the present issuance) over the course of time subject to the covenants of the structure. The notes were rated Ba3 (Stable) by Moodys.

Earlier in the year, AGEL had completed the tie-up of a USD 1.35 Bn revolving construction framework arrangement for senior debt funding of construction stage projects. With this USD 750 Mn ListCo issuance, AGEL has completed the final phase of its capital management plan, and now has a fully funded program for both debt and equity for its stated target of 25 GW by 2025.

“The 4.7X oversubscription of this issuance is testimony of the confidence of global investors in the world’s fastest growing Renewable Energy platform and Adani’s capability to set up a world class clean energy business,” said Mr. Vneet S Jaain, MD and CEO, AGEL.

AGEL states that top external agencies have provided assurance on its green framework. Vigeo Eiris, a subsidiary of Moody’s Investor Service, has provided a second party opinion endorsing AGEL’s green framework and KPMG has provided independent assurance on the same.

Green Bonds Worth $3.6 B Issued by Indian RE Developers in H1 2021

According to a study released by CEEWCEF, Indian renewable energy developers issued green bonds worth INR 26,300 crore (USD 3.6 billion) in the first half of 2021 alone, beating even previous oneyear records.

The CEEW Centre for Energy Finance (CEEW-CEF) is an initiative of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), one of Asia’s leading think tanks. CEEW-CEF acts as a non-partisan market observer and driver that monitors, develops, tests, and deploys financial solutions to advance the energy transition. The study “Financing India’s Energy Transition Through International Bond Markets,” supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, also found that Indian developers have raised more than INR 78,200 crore (USD 11 billion) since 2014 through green bonds issued in international markets. Two of them, Greenko and ReNew Power, account for nearly 70 per cent of all issuances by value. CEEW-CEF says that the findings highlight the potential of green bond markets to support India’s ambitious push to achieve energy-independence by 2047, a target recently announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Proceeds from the INR 78,200 crore of capital raised have directly refinanced debt for over 10 GW’s worth of Indian RE projects. Wind and solar power account for 42 per cent each of this refinanced portfolio and represent a combined 8.4 GW. Hydropower makes up the balance. This implies that 8.4 per cent per cent of India’s non-hydro RE capacity, totalling 100 GW, has been debt-financed with overseas capital.

Gagan Sidhu, Director, CEEW-CEF, and co-author of the study, said, “India’s nonhydro RE portfolio recently crossed the 100 GW mark, but we need to significantly ramp up capital mobilisation to get to 450 GW by 2030. Additional routes of capital such as green bonds will be essential for this transition, which requires investments of more than INR 15 lakh crore in power generation capacity alone. For perspective, the outstanding exposure of Indian institutional lenders to the entire power sector stood at approximately INR 13 lakh crore as of March 2020.” The CEEW-CEF study highlighted that green bonds issued by Indian developers have generated high market interest, with average oversubscription at 360 per cent. Asian investors have shown the greatest appetite by picking up nearly 50 per cent of the bonds. However, the market remains nascent. Only eight Indian developers have accessed international bond markets as of June 2021.

Shreyas garg, Lead Author, adds “Further, it is interesting to note that projects with state utilities make up over 60 per cent of bond portfolios, with developers mitigating payment delay risks by diversifying their portfolios. Other firms planning bond raises should similarly structure projects into portfolios that can diversify risk and attract investor interest.”

The CEEW-CEF study recommends increased participation by developers of all sizes in international bond markets. Also, industrial units looking to set up RE plants for captive consumption can leverage their strong credit profiles to obtain favourable pricing. RE manufacturers can also leverage their inherently ‘green’ businesses to raise green bonds and diversify capital.

Azure Power Q1 Results.

7% QoQ Growth, Back Into Profits

Azure Power, one of the leading solar power developers from India, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has announced its Q1 results.

The Firm had the following key highlights to showcase: • Megawatts (“MW”) Operating* were 2,052 MWs, as of June 30, 2021, an increase of 23% over

June 30, 2020. Operating,

Contracted & Awarded MWs* were 6,955 MWs, as of June 30, 2021. Contracted & Awarded megawatts include 4,000 MWs for which we have received

Letters of Award (“LOA”) but the Power Purchase

Agreements (“PPAs”) have not yet been signed. • Operating revenues for the quarter ended June 30, 2021 were INR 4,440 million (US$ 59.7 million), an increase of 13% over the quarter ended

June 30, 2020. • Net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2021 was INR 697 million (US$ 9.6 million).

The increase in net profit was mainly due to an increase in operating revenue by INR 500 million (US$ 6.7 million), • Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter ended June 30, 2021 was INR 3,668 million (US$ 49.3 million), an increase of 11% over the quarter ended

June 30, 2020. • Non-GAAP Cash Flow to

Equity (“CFe”) from Operating Assets for the quarter ended

June 30, 2021 was INR 1,844 million (US$ 24.8 million), an increase of 12% over the quarter ended June 30, 2020.

Thus, while the results based on the corresponding quarter look satisfactory, it’s the quarter on quarter change that looks interesting. Growth has been anaemic for now, at just 7% of additional capacity added, to take total capacity in operation to 2052 MW.

A worrying indicator is the increase in cost per MW, where the firm has flagged a 33% increase to $0.52 million, as compared to $0.39 million in Q4 of 2020-21.

Average collection period or DSO (daily sales outstanding) for billings is at 75 days now. Andhra Pradesh, at 646 days, and Karnataka at 261 days, are the standout problem states when it comes to collections for the firm.

The firm has given a guidance of 2750-2955 MW of operating assets by the end of March 2022. It has also indicated progress on 4000 MW of projects awarded by SECI, which have been stuck pending signing of PSA’s by SECI.

With Q2 and Q3 historically the lower quarters when it comes to plant load factors, the firm will hope to see movement on many issues to end the year in line with its guidance for a revenue of Rs 1790 cr (17,900 million) to 1890 cr for the full year.