Supplying energy and energy-related facilities through service and maintenance contracts for businesses across Southeast Asia, without customers having to purchase the assets themselves. The project will install c. 135MW of new capacity across a range of solutions, mobilising up to USD 100 million in blended capital through partnerships with local developers and lenders.
Kunal Mehta and Michael Brown, co-founders of August Energy approached PIDG to explore a strategic partnership.
Their vision was to establish a scalable, capital-efficient EaaS platform to enable C&I customers to adopt renewable energy solutions with no upfront cost, thereby supporting broader climate action objectives. Their track record in successfully building and scaling EaaS businesses was a key factor underpinning our confidence in the partnership.
This was PIDG’s first investment in an Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) platform, marking a shift from single-asset projects to a multi-service platform approach. What that means is that we are able to deploy capital across a range of solutions including solar, cooling, steam, and energy storage, allowing for greater flexibility, diversification, and scalability.
The very feature that made this project exciting – its multi-service, multi-country nature. It involved assessing opportunities across different energy solutions and markets, each with distinct regulations, market conditions, and levels of development.
This meant that due diligence was deep, and broad, spanning multiple sectors with different risk profiles at once.
Ultimately, August Energy’s approach towards the process – with a clear strategy, strong commercial discipline, and a collaborative mindset – helped navigate this complexity.
Is the transaction replicable? How?
The model is replicable and has already been deployed, for example, through our joint venture with Radiance Renewables in India, focused on a pipeline of C&I captive solar projects.
The platform approach leverages the sponsor’s local execution capabilities while allowing us to remain closely involved in project development and governance. This enables us to scale a diversified pipeline in challenging markets, while embedding robust health, safety, environmental and social best practices.
In hindsight, we could have accelerated parts of the process, particularly by mobilising resources earlier to manage the multiple due diligence workstreams required for a platform of this complexity.
However, when investing in a new model, a degree of caution is both necessary and appropriate. This transaction helped us build a clearer framework for evaluating similar opportunities, and we expect future such deals to progress more efficiently.
