Candi Solar's $50 Million Bet on India's Small Businesses

Jan de Vries · 2026-11-06

Candi Solar just pulled in €44 million — roughly $50 million — and it's headed straight into solar projects across India. The Swiss clean energy company announced the financing partnership with Pentagreen Capital, and the money will build rooftop, ground-mounted, and open-access solar installations paired with battery energy storage systems (BESS) across key business hubs. Here's the part that matters: this facility is expected to help avoid an estimated 397,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year. That's not a rounding error. ### Who's Backing This, Anyway? A $50 million check doesn't come from one place. The strategy draws support from a pretty stacked lineup: - The FAST-P Office under the Monetary Authority of Singapore - Export Finance Australia - International Finance Corporation - The Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank (FMO) - HSBC, Temasek, and British International Investment - Bank of the Philippine Islands, Allied Climate Partners, DBS, and Cathay United Bank That's a lot of institutional weight behind one solar platform. It signals real confidence in the model, not just the market. ### Why Small Businesses Are the Real Story Fabio Eucalipto, co-founder and Director of Candi Solar, put it plainly: "Millions of smaller businesses power India's economy and drive its industrial growth. These companies should benefit from clean, reliable energy without the burden of mastering energy complexities or making major capital commitments." He added that Candi has spent years building a customer-first model to make this work. "By combining rooftop and ground-mounted open-access solutions with flexible financing, we can deliver tailored energy solutions at scale." That framing matters. SMEs account for 31% of India's GDP and 35% of its manufacturing output. Yet they're chronically underserved when it comes to renewable energy access. Candi's turnkey shared-value model flips the script: clients keep their capital and pay only for the clean energy generated, while Candi handles engineering, construction, and long-term operational performance. ### The Broader European Funding Wave Candi's round didn't happen in a vacuum. It lands alongside a wave of 2026 European funding announcements in renewable infrastructure and commercial battery storage: - Switzerland's enshift raised €18.5 million for integrated energy-transition services - Germany's encosa secured €25 million for battery storage targeting SMEs - Feldwerke obtained a €12 million facility for solar project construction - Belgium's Octave.energy raised €10 million - Denmark's Reel secured €15 million Add in Germany's Einklang (€2.2 million) and Switzerland's LightSeeds (€162k), and those seven announcements total roughly €82.9 million — climbing to €126.9 million once you fold in Candi's new facility. ### What the Money Actually Builds Today's transaction will finance approximately 400MWp of solar and battery energy storage projects in India. Those projects are expected to deliver 560 gigawatt hours of renewable energy annually, supporting the decarbonisation of 227 commercial and industrial customers — 78% of them SMEs. Marat Zapparov, CEO of Pentagreen Capital, framed the stakes clearly: "India's growing energy demand and need to reduce oil imports make the transition to clean energy both a strategic and an economic priority. Pentagreen Capital, under Singapore's FAST-P initiative, is honoured to partner with Candi, whose flexible solar and storage solutions are tailored to the needs of India's SMEs." Founded in Zurich in 2018, Candi Solar finances, builds, and operates solar and battery storage for commercial and industrial businesses, with a sharp focus on underserved SMEs in carbon-intensive emerging markets — primarily India and South Africa. For anyone tracking European startup incorporation and cross-border climate finance, this deal is worth watching. The capital is European, the impact is Indian, and the model — pay only for what you use — might just be the template that scales.