Singapore-headquartered energy-as-a-service (EaaS) platform August Energy and Indian energy-efficiency firm Energeia have partnered to launch an infrastructure investment platform aimed at decarbonising commercial and industrial (C&I) facilities in India, the companies said Wednesday.
The platform, August Energeia, will raise a $100-million fund to finance and deliver energy-efficiency infrastructure, with a particular focus on Cooling-as-a-Service (CaaS), allowing factories and commercial buildings to upgrade energy-intensive equipment without upfront capital expenditure, the companies said in a statement.
Under the model, project economics are linked to the performance and energy savings the assets deliver, rather than to conventional capex-based contracts.
August Energeia will target sectors such as pharmaceuticals, automotive, food and beverage, chemicals, cement, steel, hospitality, healthcare, data centres, and commercial real estate. The platform’s offerings span cooling, heating, steam, compressed air, fuel switching and motors, alongside renewable energy solutions such as solar, wind and storage.
The tie-up combines August Energy's institutional capital base and techno-commercial structuring capabilities with Energeia's energy-audit, engineering, execution and technology expertise, the companies said. The partnership is being driven by Sookrit Malik, chief executive and co-founder of Energeia, and Vishal Jain, managing director of August Energy and head of the platform's India business and generation vertical.
According to people aware of the development, the platform aims to back around 50 projects, with an average ticket size of approximately $2 million. However, individual ticket sizes may vary from as low as $200,000 to more than $5 million.
The platform will invest a mix of equity and debt capital, the people said, adding that iInvestment in each project will be for anywhere between eight years and 15 years. The platform expects annualised returns of anywhere between 15% and 25%, the people said.
The people also said that August Energy will contribute a bulk of the $100-million fund and that the platform will look to expand to $300 million over the next three to five years.
Separately, Energeia is looking to raise between $5 million and $10 million, preferably from a strategic investor.
August Energy, founded in 2022, operates as a developer, owner and operator of energy infrastructure assets across India and Southeast Asia, with offices spanning India, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam alongside its Singapore headquarters. Its portfolio spans renewable generation, energy storage, cooling, heat recovery and bioenergy, and the platform counts more than 300 MWp of capacity in operation, under construction or in development. Its institutional backers include Aravest's Asia-Pacific Sustainable & Decarbonisation Infrastructure Equity fund — backed by SMBC Group — as well as Green Tower, Proparco, responsAbility Investments and PIDG's InfraCo. The platform has struck a similar partnership, August Mega Energy, targeting the clean-energy market in Vietnam.
Energeia, an energy services company headquartered in Delhi, works with large industrial and commercial clients to unlock energy and emission savings through smart metering, microgrids and the retrofitting of diesel generators to run on cleaner fuels. Its client roster has included LG Electronics and The Leela Hotels.
The launch comes as India's energy-efficiency sector draws growing investor attention, with the government pushing decarbonisation targets for energy-intensive industries even as electricity demand in the country is projected to rise sharply over the coming decades.
