Solar Ethyl Vinyl Acetate (EVA) manufacturer Navitas Alpha Renewables (NARPL) has raised ₹70 million(~$866,041) in a seed round led by investment advisory firm Niveshaay with participation from Madhusudan Sarda, IVY Growth Associates, and others.

The funding will be used to add capacity and strengthen the company’s R&D initiatives. The company plans to work on new products like Polyolefin Elastomer (POE) encapsulants to gain an edge in the industry. A part of the capital will also be used to ramp up testing capabilities and improve the product’s value proposition.

“With the backing from Niveshaay, in addition to our existing investors, we are well on our way to capitalizing on the opportunity and becoming an industry leader,” said Akshay Agarwal, Director of NARPL.

NARPL is a joint venture between Navitas Green Solutions (Navitas Solar) and Gujarat-based packaging and container manufacturers Alpha Plastomers. The company operates a manufacturing facility in Surat, with an aggregate installed capacity of 600 MW as of June 30, 2022.

With its foray into manufacturing in 2020, the company builds EVA encapsulant films (a critical input in solar modules) and supplies the product to solar module manufacturers.

NARPL recently entered into a technical partnership with a domestic EVA line manufacturer, allowing the company to co-develop an exclusive low-cost, higher-efficiency manufacturing technology than current alternatives.

“Given the enormous potential of the renewables sector and the NARPL team’s relentless pursuit of success, this investment seems an ideal way to support India’s transition to sustainable energy. We at Niveshaay are excited to help the NARPL team take advantage of the growing solar opportunities in the country,” said Arvind Kothari, Founder of Niveshaay.

Solar module manufacturing has been the center of attention in India with the ‘Make in India’ initiative. The manufacturing size is set to grow with the Centre approving the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s proposal to implement the second phase of the production-linked incentive program to achieve gigawatt-scale manufacturing of high efficiency-solar photovoltaic modules.

According to Mercom India’s Q2 2022 India Solar Market Update,  investments in the Indian solar sector were up by 24.8% year-over-year in Q2 compared to $2.26 billion (~₹182.68 billion) in Q1 2022.