From: Mercom Capital Group

Erapid, an electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions provider, raised €30 million (~$32 million) from Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of Aviva. The phased investment by Aviva Investors, as part of its Climate Transition Real Assets strategy, will enable Erapid to expand its operational capabilities and network of chargers across Ireland. Erapid trades in Ireland as EasyGo and CarCharger EV and currently manages over 4,000 charging points in 1,500 locations across the country. In addition, and as part of the transaction, Rubicon Capital Advisors, an Irish-based merchant banking boutique and one of Erapid’s largest shareholders, will also increase its stake in the company to further assist with the growth of the business.

Cosmos Innovation, a solar AI tech solutions firm, has raised $19.7 million in Series A funding led by Xora Innovation, an early-stage, deep-tech investment platform of Temasek, a global investment company headquartered in Singapore. The funding will help support the company’s AI-driven approach to developing perovskite silicon tandem solar cell technology. The round also saw investments from Endeavors, which led the seed round; Two Sigma Ventures; DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis; MIT professor Tomaso Poggio; Richard Socher, natural language processing researcher, CEO of You.com and managing partner at AIX Ventures; and Western Technology Investments, a venture debt fund in Silicon Valley.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is set to acquire PTC Energy Limited (PEL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of PTC India, at a transaction valued at ₹9.25 billion (~$111.18 million). Through PEL, its subsidiary formed in 2008, PTC has commissioned seven wind power projects spread across Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh with a generation capacity of 288.8 MW. This transaction is subject to the fulfillment of conditions precedent and other terms and conditions per the share purchase agreement to be executed between the parties.

Ampacimon, a grid monitoring solutions provider, raised €10 million (~$11 million) in Series C funding from Junction Growth Investors along with existing investors Korys, Noshaq, Creos, and Gesval. The company provides dynamic line rating, partial discharge monitoring, and fault detection solutions, which they claim can enhance power transmission capacity by an average of 30%. Simultaneously, they strengthen operational reliability by enabling early detection, diagnosis, and pinpointing of potential failures. The company harnesses data from advanced sensors deployed on grids to optimize its customer’s T&D assets.

Fastned, a provider of EV Charging solutions, raised €30.4 million (~$32.3 million) through the issue of new bonds. In addition, investors have extended €3.5 million (~$3.7 million) worth of investments from earlier issues, bringing the total issued amount in this round to €33.9 million (~$36 million). The bonds have a 6% coupon and a five-year maturity. This 13th round in the bond program brings the total outstanding investments raised with retail investors to more than €163 million (~$173 million).

Canadian Solar announced the successful placement of a JPY18.5 billion (~$120 million) green samurai private placement to help fund the company’s growth strategy. Goldman Sachs Japan was the lead arranger and sole book runner with the domestic bond investors. The private placement has a three-year tenor with a mix of both semi-annual fixed (1.82% p.a.) and floating (circa 1.49% p.a.) coupons.

For reports and trackers on funding and M&A transactions in solar, energy storage, and smart grid sectors, click here.

Read last week’s funding roundup.