Distributed solar in emerging markets is no longer aspirational—it is proven, investable, and central to the world's clean energy transition.
In December 2025, the International Finance Corporation committed $58.5 million to Candi Solar, a distributed energy company operating across India and South Africa — a gesture that carries meaning beyond the transaction itself. For years, clean energy in emerging markets was treated as a frontier too volatile for institutional capital; this structured, multicurrency facility suggests that calculus is changing. Candi's model — financing, building, and guaranteeing solar output for factories, stadiums, and supermarket chains — has quietly matured from an experiment into infrastructure, and the world's largest development finance institution has now said so with its balance sheet.
- Distributed solar in emerging markets has long been starved of institutional capital, dismissed as too fragmented and too exposed to currency and regulatory risk — Candi's $58.5M IFC deal directly challenges that assumption.
- The company's portfolio more than doubled to 220 megawatts in just eighteen months, serving clients from Toyota assembly lines to a South African rugby stadium, proving the model can scale across industries and geographies.
- The financing structure itself is the signal: a multicurrency blend of concessional loans, commercial debt, and climate fund contributions designed to absorb early-stage risk while meeting strict ESG standards — a template for unlocking global capital in underserved markets.
- With a Series D round anticipated in 2026 and a target of 400+ megawatts contracted, Candi is no longer positioning itself as a clean energy startup but as a regional infrastructure platform with institutional-grade credibility.
Candi Solar, which installs and manages solar systems for businesses across India and South Africa, closed the largest funding round in its history in December 2025. The International Finance Corporation — the World Bank's private lending arm — led a $58.5 million debt facility, bringing the company's total capital raised past $200 million. The package blended concessional and commercial financing across multiple currencies, including South African rands, Indian rupees, and US dollars, with contributions from the Canada-IFC Blended Climate Finance Platform and the Climate Investment Funds' Clean Technology Fund. That structure is deliberate: it hedges currency risk and signals a long-term regional commitment rather than a short-term extraction.
Founded in 2018, Candi has built its business around a model that deliberately avoids the utility-scale solar farms dominating renewable energy headlines. Instead, the company puts solar on the rooftops and grounds of individual businesses — car parts manufacturers, cotton mills, supermarket chains, sports stadiums — financing the system, managing it, and guaranteeing the output in exchange for a fixed power rate. Clients like Toyota, Pick n Pay, and Suryalakshmi Cotton Mills get predictable energy costs; Candi absorbs the technical risk. In eighteen months, this approach helped the company more than double its portfolio to 220 megawatts, with 85 of those coming from open-access projects in India that allow businesses to buy power directly from independent generators.
Company leadership described the IFC's involvement as catalytic — not just for Candi's balance sheet, but for the sector's credibility with global investors. The new facility will finance nearly 200 megawatts of additional projects, with benefits extending beyond clean energy metrics: more stable power supply for businesses in grid-volatile regions, local employment, and long-term cost competitiveness for industrial clients. Earlier in 2025, Candi raised $24 million in equity and mezzanine funding, laying the groundwork for a high double-digit Series D round expected in 2026. By then, the company aims to surpass 400 megawatts of contracted capacity and expand into energy storage — a trajectory that marks distributed solar's arrival not as a promising idea, but as proven, scalable infrastructure.
Candi Solar, a company that installs and manages solar panels for factories, offices, and retail chains across India and South Africa, just closed the largest funding round in its history. The International Finance Corporation—the private lending arm of the World Bank—led a $58.5 million debt facility that brings the company's total capital raised to more than $200 million. The money arrived in December, structured as a blend of concessional loans and commercial debt, some in local currency, some in dollars. It is the kind of financing arrangement that signals institutional confidence: the IFC does not move this way on unproven bets.
The company was founded in 2018 and has spent the last six years building a particular kind of business. Rather than chasing utility-scale solar farms—the massive installations that dominate renewable energy headlines—Candi focuses on the distributed model: putting solar on the roofs and grounds of individual businesses. A car parts maker in India. A rugby stadium in South Africa. A cotton mill. A supermarket chain. Pick n Pay, Toyota, IFF, Suryalakshmi Cotton Mills. The pitch is straightforward: we finance the system, we build it, we manage it, and we guarantee the output. You pay a fixed rate for the power. Your energy costs become predictable. We absorb the technical risk.
In eighteen months, Candi's portfolio more than doubled to 220 megawatts of capacity. Eighty-five of those megawatts came from open-access projects in India—a regulatory category that allows businesses to buy power directly from independent generators rather than through the grid monopoly. The company's flagship sites include Pricol Limited, an auto components manufacturer; Ngwenya Lodge in South Africa; and the solar installation at Kings Park Stadium, home of the Sharks rugby team. These are not abstract numbers. They are real rooftops, real businesses, real power flowing into real operations.
What the IFC's investment signals is a shift in how global capital views this sector. Distributed solar in emerging markets was once considered too risky—too fragmented, too dependent on individual business performance, too exposed to currency and regulatory volatility. The IFC structured this facility to absorb those early-stage risks while maintaining strict environmental, social, and governance standards. The package included $6.5 million from the Canada-IFC Blended Climate Finance Platform, up to $42 million from IFC's own account (in a mix of South African rands, Indian rupees, and US dollars), and up to $10 million in concessional financing from the Climate Investment Funds' Clean Technology Fund. The multicurrency approach matters: it hedges currency risk and signals that this is a long-term regional play, not a quick dollar extraction.
Bruno Rauis, Candi's director, called it a watershed moment. "This is the largest funding facility we have ever closed," he said. "It propels us into our next phase of growth and strengthens our ambition to be the leading distributed energy partner in India, South Africa, and beyond. IFC's involvement is catalytic—it builds confidence among global investors and enables us to access larger pools of capital to scale faster in the years ahead." Nishant Sood, the managing director, framed it as validation of the model itself. The company has positioned itself among India's leading distributed solar developers, and this funding reflects the sector's growing depth and significance in an expanding market.
The facility will finance nearly 200 megawatts of new projects. Beyond the megawatts, the impact spreads across several dimensions. There is the sustainability angle: clean energy adoption across industrial clusters, lower emissions. There is resilience: businesses and communities facing power volatility get more stable supply. There is employment and supply chains: jobs created, local industrial capacity built. And there is affordability: companies lock in predictable energy costs and long-term competitive advantage. These are not marketing abstractions. They are the actual mechanics of how distributed solar works in places where grid power is unreliable or expensive.
Candi raised $24 million in equity and mezzanine funding earlier in 2025, laying groundwork for what the company expects will be a high double-digit Series D round in 2026. By then, the company aims to expand its contracted portfolio beyond 400 megawatts across both countries while deepening its product suite to include energy storage solutions. The trajectory is clear: distributed solar in emerging markets has moved from aspirational to proven, from niche to investable, from a bet on the future to infrastructure that works today.
Citas Notables
This is the largest funding facility we have ever closed. It propels us into our next phase of growth and strengthens our ambition to be the leading distributed energy partner in India, South Africa, and beyond.— Bruno Rauis, Director of Candi Solar
Our partnership with Candi Solar demonstrates how innovative financing models can unlock private capital at scale—supporting small and medium-sized businesses to create jobs, reduce energy costs, and strengthen operational resilience.— Claudia Conceicao, IFC Regional Director for Southern Africa
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why does the IFC structure matter so much? It's still just money.
Because it's not just money—it's permission. When the World Bank's private arm blends concessional and commercial debt in local currencies, they're saying this asset class can meet global standards. That opens doors for pension funds, insurance companies, other institutional investors who were sitting on the sidelines.
But Candi is still a relatively young company. What makes them trustworthy at this scale?
Their model transfers risk away from the customer. Candi guarantees the output. If the panels underperform, Candi eats the loss, not Toyota or Pick n Pay. That alignment—where the company's revenue depends on actual system performance—is what institutional investors want to see. It's not a promise; it's a contract.
The narrative mentions 220 megawatts. Is that a lot?
For distributed solar, yes. Utility-scale farms can be 500 megawatts or more, but they're single sites. Candi's 220 is spread across dozens of individual businesses. That's harder to build, harder to finance, but it's also more resilient. If one customer's business struggles, the portfolio doesn't collapse.
What does the local currency piece actually do?
It solves a real problem. If Candi borrows in dollars but earns rupees and rands, currency swings can wipe out margins. By borrowing in local currency, they match their revenue stream to their debt obligations. It's boring but essential—it's what lets them survive a currency crisis.
So this is really about proving that distributed solar works in emerging markets?
Exactly. The IFC's involvement says: we've looked at the numbers, the governance, the performance data, and we're confident enough to put $58.5 million behind it. That confidence is contagious. Other investors see it and think, maybe this isn't as risky as we thought.