SolarHome, a Singapore-based Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) off-grid solar solutions provider in southeast Asia, has raised $10 million in debt financing from a consortium of international investors, including Crowdcredit, a cross-border crowdfunding platform based in Japan, and Trine, a Sweden-based crowdfunding platform for off-grid solar.

The investment follows on the $4.2 million in convertible note funding raised in 2018 from international investors, including Trirec, Insitor Impact Asia, Beenext, and a group of Singapore-based family offices.

The new funds will enable SolarHome to accelerate expansion across Myanmar. Through this expansion, the company aims to reach 100,000 homes with its product packages that include budget, basic and premium solar system bundles for lighting and phone charging purposes, as well as TV bundles.

Ted Martynov, chief executive officer and co-founder of SolarHome, said, “Accessing debt finance on such a scale at this stage in our development has significantly outperformed our expectations. We believe this is a testament to the strength of our professional team, and the relentless focus on operational quality that we bring to the PAYG space in Southeast Asia. The new funding will enable us to accelerate our growth in 2019 and bring clean energy to hundreds of thousands of off-grid households in Myanmar.”

This additional funding represents another important step in the ongoing growth story of SolarHome. The company has installed 28,000 solar home systems, so far.

Mercom previously reported, SolarHome secured its first debt funding from online platform lender Kiva in October 2017, shortly after having closed an oversubscribed pre-Series A equity funding round of $625,000 led by impact venture capital firm Uberis Capital.

Off-grid solar has a bright future in under developed parts of the world and the funding towards these emerging markets has also witnessed a significant increase over the years. According to Mercom’s Solar Funding and M&A Reports, the global off-grid solar market saw deals worth $97 million in the year 2015. Approximately $147 million were raised in 2016 and in the year 2017, the sector witnessed an exponential growth, raising a whopping $243 million.

In August, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Nordic Development Fund, and other partners committed $58 million to support the Off-Grid Energy Access Fund (OGEF). The fund is part of AfDB’s sponsored Facility for Energy Inclusion (FEI), a $500 million debt platform to mobilize capital market funds for innovative energy access strategies.