Apraava Energy signed financing agreements with BII for INR 4005 million (~USD 46 million) and another agreement for INR 4004 million (~USD 46 million) with Standard Chartered. The combined facility will support the growth of Apraava’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) footprint and contribute to India’s energy transition goals.

India’s power sector is undergoing a significant transformation to enhance efficiency, reduce losses, and drive sustainability. While progress has been made, distribution utilities continue to face challenges such as high distribution losses. To address this, the Government of India launched the INR 3 trillion (~USD 35 billion) Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS).

A key component of RDSS is the rollout of AMI – a smart meter network that is designed to improve grid efficiency, promote transparency, and deliver a more sustainable power distribution system by integrating renewable energy. The government has set an ambitious target of installing 250 million smart meters by 2026.

Apraava offers a comprehensive, end-to-end AMI solution and is well placed to accelerate the smart metering adoption in the country under the scheme. Its AMI footprint spans across several states with a target of installing around 7.8 million smart meters.

Standard Chartered and BII’s financing will enable Apraava to install over c.2 million smart meters in homes and businesses. The smart meters will help to make India’s grid system become more efficient, reliable, and sustainable. This will enable better integration of renewable energy sources and help reduce aggregate technical and commercial losses and thereby reduce emissions.

Commenting on the development, Samir Ashta, Director – Finance & CFO, Apraava Energy, said, “Just as India stands at a pivotal moment in its energy transition journey, Apraava is charting a new course by diversifying into the AMI business, a critical step toward advancing the nation’s power sector. With this financing, we’re scaling up our smart metering efforts. We are proud of our track record in AMI, including achieving India’s first RDSS project operational go-live in Assam and the country’s fastest go-live in Himachal Pradesh. Partnership with Standard Chartered and BII empowers us to accelerate this journey and help build a low-carbon, customer-centric energy future. This partnership extends our philosophy of ‘Energy in action’, as we collaborate with Discoms to make energy smarter, more transparent, affordable, and reliable for customers.”

Shilpa Kumar, Managing Director and Head of India, British International Investment, said, “Smart metering is an emerging yet critical part of the business model. It strengthens the distribution dynamics in the energy sector and can significantly drive India’s journey toward a greener and more sustainable power sector. As the UK’s development finance institution, we play a catalytic role in accelerating this transition by partnering with innovative companies like Apraava and financiers like Standard Chartered. Our support for the company will drive improvements in grid efficiency, enhance service quality, and contribute to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. This initiative aligns with our commitments to supporting India’s energy transition and mobilising private capital to combat the climate emergency.”

Prasad Hegde, Regional Head, Infrastructure & Development Finance Group, India and South Asia, Standard Chartered, said, “Smart meter rollout is a key initiative of Government of India to improve efficiency of the distribution network by reducing losses and driving sustainability of the power sector. We are delighted to support Apraava Energy as they accelerate their contribution to India’s energy transition journey by implementing this smart metering project. India is a key sustainable finance market for Standard Chartered, and we are committed to supporting the country’s ambition to reduce overall carbon emissions and expand sustainable practices.”

Jamie Scattergood, Deputy Head of Mission, British Deputy High Commission, Mumbai said, “Smart metres play a vital role in improving power distribution efficiency. This is one example of India’s commitment to accelerating the transition to clean energy and the UK is proud to partner with India on this journey by supporting smart metre rollout under the RDSS scheme. A clear demonstration of how UK development finance and commercial investment can work together to support India’s clean energy goals.”  

This milestone investment marks a major step in Apraava’s journey and highlights its growing leadership in India’s smart metering landscape. It further reinforces the company’s commitment to supporting the country’s vision of a smarter, more resilient, and customer-focused power distribution network.

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Bengaluru – 25 June 2024 – British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution (DFI) and impact investor, has committed $75 million to the second Green Basket Bond arranged by Symbiotics Investments, a leading emerging markets access platform and financial lender. The green lending programme will increase financing to small-scale green projects across Africa, South and South-East Asia through MSME lenders, with 50 per cent of the financing earmarked for India. It will focus on supporting new MSME lenders not included in the first Green Basket Bond.

Following the success of the first Green Basket Bond issued in 2022, this programme will continue to leverage Symbiotics’ global network, and BII’s 76-year track record as an impact investor, to support an additional 10 – 15 MSME lenders who require smaller investment capital than BII is typically able to fund directly. In addition, over $460,000 will be provided by BII’s Technical Assistance facility to enable the MSME lenders to further develop their climate financing expertise.

The fight against the climate emergency is a global challenge. India’s high vulnerability to climate change with an increasing risk of extreme weather events and rising sea levels requires an urgent need for green projects. However, many green businesses and projects within the MSME sector find it difficult to get access to finance. In India, the MSME financing gap is estimated at $530 billion. To address this gap, the new Green Basket Bond will have a bigger focus on India to provide much needed capital to green businesses and projects to help the country achieve its sustainability goals.

As with the first green basket bond, funding will be provided to green projects that span renewable energy, energy efficiency, clean transportation, green buildings, agriculture, forestry and more.

Samir Abhyankar, Managing Director and Head of Financial Services Group, British International Investment, said: “Partnering with Symbiotics on a second green basket bond signifies a continued commitment to empowering smaller financial institutions and supporting sustainable development in climate-vulnerable regions. Channelling capital to where it is most needed, not only supports local businesses and projects but also contributes to global efforts in building resilience against climate change. The expansion of this programme is a testament to the positive impact and success of the initial partnership. We look forward to continuing working with Symbiotics to further efforts to mobilise more private capital into this space.”

Yvan Renaud, CEO of Symbiotics Investments, added: “We are very grateful to British International Investment for partnering with Symbiotics on this second green basket bond. We share the view that financing dedicated MSME lenders and reaching smaller local businesses and projects strongly contributes to the effectiveness of climate finance. We hope that this second green basket bond will have a catalytic effect on the mobilisation of capital for similar projects that play a key role in successfully tackling climate change and its consequences.”

The first Green Basket Bond supported 11 MSME lenders in India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Tunisia, Botswana, Kenya, Bangladesh and Nepal.

This Green Basket Bond issuance contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 7) on Affordable and Clean Energy and (SDG13) on Climate Action.

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