From: Mercom Capital Group

Swell Energy, a provider of virtual power plant (VPP) programs for homeowners and businesses, raised $120 million to accelerate the deployment of its offerings across the United States. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Greenbacker Development Opportunities Fund I led the investment round with participation from the Ares Infrastructure Opportunities Fund and Ontario Power Generation Pension Fund. Swell Energy plans to utilize the proceeds to develop 600 MWh of VPPs by deploying and aggregating 26,000 energy storage systems located at homes and businesses.

UgoWork, a Canada-based provider of lithium-ion batteries and energy monitoring solutions, announced the closing of its all-equity C$22.8 million (~$17.08 million) Series B funding round led by Fonds de solidarité FTQ. The other participants in the round include Export Development Canada (EDC), Desjardins Capital, and Investissement Québec. UgoWork plans to use the new funds to accelerate the development efforts for its software and artificial intelligence platform, enabling the ‘Energy as a Service’ program for its lithium-ion battery lineup and reducing the upfront cost for faster deployments.

Bravo Infrastructure Group (BIG), an investment vehicle, acquired Radiance Solar, a commercial and industrial solar engineering, procurement, and construction contractor in the southeastern United States, through a capital partnership with Orion Infrastructure Capital (OIC). Radiance has installed over 125 MW of solar across ground mounts, rooftops, and canopies, including systems with battery storage. Radiance also maintains extensive operations and maintenance business serving assets throughout the Southeast. To complete the purchase of Radiance, BIG partnered with OIC, a leading capital solutions provider to middle-market infrastructure businesses with approximately $3 billion of assets under management.

Energy services company Solarise Africa has signed a $33.4-million multi-country commercial and industrial facility with the Facility for Energy Inclusion (FEI) to obtain funding and flexibility to expand its portfolio in Kenya and other African countries. FEI will provide $21.4 million of the total amount and is joined by Oikocedit ($7 million) and Lion’s Head-managed fund.

Zenith Energy secures A$440 million (~$296.6 million) in debt financing to support its growth capital expenditure related to new generation solutions. The five-year, syndicated debt facilities were signed with Westpac Banking Corporation, National Australian Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, BNP Paribas, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, and Aware Super. The funding is expected to support new-generation projects and growth in the urban and remote microgrid segment.

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

Read last week’s funding roundup.