Navitas raises up to $20 million from Swiss investor Responsibility for solar cell plant

Navitas, which describes itself as a leading integrated renewable energy platform in India, has announced that it has raised up to $20 million in growth capital from Responsibility, a Swiss impact asset manager. Responsibility has invested the money on behalf of its investors.

According to the company, the money will go towards expanding its planned 2.2 GW solar cell manufacturing project in India. This will give Navitas the chance to carry out large-scale backward integration in the solar value chain. It will also be able to build an integrated clean energy manufacturing platform.

The investment is part of Responsibility's Asia Climate Fund. It comes at a time when India is strengthening its domestic renewable energy manufacturing ecosystem and reducing its dependence on imports of solar equipment.

Navitas has already established a presence in solar modules, encapsulant manufacturing, EPC services, BESS and renewable energy generation. The company now intends to move into wafer and ingot manufacturing to strengthen the solar supply chain further.

Navitas director Vineet Mittal said, "We are happy to welcome Responsibility as an institutional partner. Our backward integration in solar cells will further strengthen the country's domestic supply chain. Our work on high-efficiency 'TOPCon' technology and our collaboration with Selex on 'perovskite-TOPCon' hybrid tandem modules show that we want to develop world-class advanced technology."

Company COO Vijay Menon made clear that Navitas does not measure its growth by revenue or profit alone. What matters more to it, he said, is how responsibly and sustainably growth is achieved, and through strong corporate governance.

Navitas finance head Karthik Jain said the investment will increase the company's financial flexibility. According to him, it also reflects investors' confidence in Navitas's ability to execute in the solar ecosystem.

Jay Bathija, principal of climate infrastructure investments at Responsibility, said Navitas has performed strongly in making solar modules, so expansion into cell manufacturing is its natural next step. He said they are happy to be a partner in India's clean energy and domestic manufacturing ambitions.

In the deal, the infrastructure advisory division of Mumbai-based Centrum Capital acted as the sole financial adviser to Navitas.