Distributed solar company, Fourth Partner Energy, has raised $15 million (~₹1.1 billion) in debt funding from responsAbility, a Switzerland-based development asset manager.

According to the company’s press statement, the funding will be utilized to construct new solar assets across the company’s open access and distributed solar portfolios.

“We are looking forward to adding capacity of close to 350 MW across both distributed and open access portfolios. We are building solar parks in Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra,” said Pradhyum Reddy, who led this transaction from Fourth Partner Energy.

This is the third round of funding anchored by responsAbility through its dedicated climate finance fund. According to the company, responsAbility previously deployed two rounds of funding in Fourth Partner Energy in 2016 and 2017, it added.

According to Fourth Partner Energy, it currently manages over 400 MW assets for 150 clients in India. It also commenced international operations in FY 2020, with a focus on South and Southeast Asian markets.

Fourth Partner Energy emerged as one of the top solar rooftop installers in India in the calendar year 2019, according to Mercom’s India Solar Market Leaderboard 2020.

Fourth Partner has also forayed into solar-powered EV charging infrastructure segment through its 50:50 joint venture with leading commercial EV fleet operator, Lithium Urban Technologies.

Earlier this year, the company received a loan of ₹5 million (~$67,167)from Grameen Impact India. The company said it would use these funds to implement its Power@1 program at the Madras Diabetes Research Centre in Tamil Nadu. Through the program, Fourth Partner Energy aimed to provide electricity to non-profit organizations like government schools, rural hospitals, and others at a rate of ₹1 (~$0.013)/kWh.The program uses the corporate social responsibility funds of corporate sponsors to pay a one-time capital cost for setting up a solar project at the beneficiary’s facility, according to the company’s website. The ₹1 fee is used exclusively for the maintenance of the power project.

Previously, the Bank of America had announced its plans to lend ₹3.56 billion (~$50 million) to Fourth Partner Energy through a local currency revolving credit facility.

Notably, according to Mercom’s 1H and Q2 2020 Solar Funding and M&A Report, total corporate funding (including venture capital funding, public market, and debt financing) in 1H of 2020 came to $4.5 billion compared to $6 billion in 1H 2019, a 25% drop year-over-year.