Mumbai-based rooftop solar start-up SolarSquare has raised ₹1 billion ($12.8 million) as part of its series A funding round led by Elevation Capital and U.S.-based climate-focused fund Lowercarbon Capital. Existing investors, including Good Capital, Rainmatter, Better Capital, and angels Vidit Atrey and Sanjeev Barnwal (Meesho), also participated in this funding round.

SolarSquare designs, installs, and finances rooftop solar systems for homes and provides rooftop solar solutions for housing societies and commercial establishments. The company began as a commercial rooftop solar solutions provider and turned to the residential segment in 2020.

The funds will be used to shore up the company’s presence in the upcoming 18-24 months and deploy the investment to ramp up its installations to build a seamless user experience.

SolarSquare will also invest in scaling up research and development (R&D), add more products to its inventory, and launch its in-house non-banking financial company (NBFC) to disburse loans to residential solar consumers. The funds will also be used to develop consumer and merchant-side apps and build back-end technology dashboards across the customer journey.

The fundraise comes short of four months after the start-up raised $4 million in a seed funding round led by Good Capital. In the past two years, SolarSquare has installed rooftop solar systems at nearly 5,000 homes and claims to have offset four metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per home every year by switching to solar power.

“We deeply understand the pain points that a consumer currently faces while switching to solar, and we are building highly consumer-centric solar solutions for them. Our mantra is to “Simplify Solar” and enable more homes to switch to cheaper, reliable, and greener solar power,” said SolarSquare’s CEO and Co-Founder Shreya Mishra.

Echoing the sentiment, Lowercarbon founder and serial investor Chris Sacca said, “Solar is now much cheaper and cleaner… so putting it on your roof just makes sense, especially in a part of the world with as much sun as India.”

While India has massive potential for solar, Sacca pointed out that getting panels installed isn’t always easy but believes SolarSquare has “cracked the code on hassle-free rooftop solar.”

Describing its future plans, the company aims to standardize installation quality, offer professional services and create easy EMI financing for consumers.

According to ‘Mercom India Rooftop Solar Market Report Q2 2022,’ India added 389 MW of rooftop solar capacity in the second quarter of the calendar year 2022, of which 13% was in the residential segment.