Oakridge raises India's first residential solar rooftop LC from impact lender Maanaveeya (Lead, fixing intro)

Oakridge Energy, one of North India's leading residential rooftop solar companies, has raised a first line of credit from the Indian arm of Dutch social impact investor Oikocredit for financing a pilot of residential solar rooftop installations Oakridge intends to install.

Oikocredit is among the world's leading social impact investors with total assets of about 1.3 billion euros, over 693 partners and presence across 13 countries. Manaveeya Development and Finance Pvt Ltd is the Indian arm of Oikocredit.

Oakridge would be offering payment plans for residential home owners to install solar rooftop systems and provide easy repayment structures over 3-5 years, a company release said.

In addition, Oakridge would also be installing solar panels on the rooftops of residential societies under a scheme to be launched by the Delhi Government under the World Bank Suprabha-technical assistance programme.

Shravan Sampath, CEO, Oakridge Energy said: "Residential solar rooftop is a fast-growing sector with an aggregate addressable demand of over 5000 MW over the next 5 years. There are not many players who have a presence in this market."

"Oakridge, with its extensive experience in the residential market, standardised mounting structures and implementation process, is growing to capture this market. Oakridge is pleased to obtain this line of credit from Manaveeya," he added.

Maanaveeya Managing Director Gouri Sankar, said: "Maanaveeya is a nonbanking financial company and engaged in lending to micro finance institutions, Development projects in agriculture value chains, Micro small medium enterprises (MSME) and Renewal Energy projects in India.

"Under the Renewable energy segment, we focus on funding access to energy companies and see huge potential in the roof top segment. We found a like-minded partner in Oakridge and glad to partner with Oakridge Roof Tops for piloting a Roof top project and based on the learnings, we expect to do more such deals in the Solar Roof Top space. We hope this transaction will open a niche market and a new asset class for impact investors in partnering with developers to support residential roof top segment in rural market," he said.

--IANS

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