StartUp Circle: How is Oorjan making its space in renewable energy and sustainable living space?

India’s rooftop solar market is exploding: India added more solar capacity in 2016 than all previous years combined. The Indian government has an ambitious target of 100GW (~USD 100 Billion) solar capacity deployed by 2022, out of which 40% is the rooftop. Costs have decreased and policies are favorable, but average homeowners, business owners, non-profit administrators, or housing societies all face a very friction experience when they try to explore solar as a solution. This is the problem they are solving at Oorjan. They make it easy for people to save money while doing good for the environment. Today, Oorjan is one of the most innovative and fastest-growing platforms for rooftop solar in India and hence here in CIOL in conversation with the CEO, Mr. Gautam Das.

1. How did you come up with the idea?

Oorjan is co-founded by three IIT Mumbai (and ISB / Stanford / Berkeley) alumni with experiences across renewable energy, engineering, finance, operations, and building a large business. I am the Co-founder & CEO and worked with Citibank for more than 15 years. I always wanted to become an entrepreneur and build a business from scratch. So, I was exploring potential areas to start and build a business.

Environmental issues and escalating pollution levels have endangered our future. Climate change and natural calamities are also becoming new normal. Electricity always fascinated me! I grew up in a remote village without access to electricity at home and at school. I zeroed down on renewable energy as a great space to start. This would allow us to build a business while contributing to a sustainable environment.

Oorjan was born!

2. How does the platform for solar power plants and their finance work?

Renewable energy is commercially viable and environmentally sustainable. However, the adoption of solar is a capital incentive; awareness about solar in India fairly low and often, consumers’ experience of solar adoption is not hassle-free. Oorjan solves these issues.

We created a platform to build awareness, offer reliable technology and easy financing as a package to make solar more affordable and hassle-free to end consumers. We have tied up with multiple lenders and/or asset investors (PPA) and offer turn-key solar projects to consumers across residential, commercial, and industrial consumers. Consumers get a hassle-free experience and start saving money from day-1.

3. What is your Indian market penetration? And what is your business growth till now?

The adoption of renewable energy in India is growing fast and the opportunity is enormous. However, awareness and access to easy financing are low. Oorjan has a platform called “Greenstitute” to build awareness across segments and promote reliable solutions to consumers. We have come a long way and the journey continues. Oorjan crossed more than 1500 customers across 14 states and Union territories are a very short span of time, and we are chasing very aspirational milestones.

4. How are you raising awareness for people to use solar power plants?

We run a few targeting digital campaigns ourselves and/or with our installation partners across India. Our platform “Greenstitute” offers relevant content targeting consumers, investors, and ecosystem partners. We have recently launched a training come certification module namely “Fundamental and Economy of Solar Energy” and there has been a fabulous response. Oorjan’s platform sources a thousand of leads every month and digitally qualifies them to onboard potential consumers. Our platform is sourcing and qualifying leads at a very small fraction of costs compared to any outbound programs runs by our competitors. Further, the conversion ratios are very healthy and we have a very agile team to quickly iterate basis our learning.

5. What are your financing terms?

Oorjan wants to commoditize residential solar! The consumer can create their own proposal online at Oorjan.com, use do-it-yourself (DIY) tools to assess roofs, avail easy EMI options, and adopt solar with minimal hassle. We offer 12 months’ interest-free EMI options and also 24 / 36 months EMI option with less than 10% interest.

For Industrial and commercial customers, we offer both Capex (customer invests into the project) with the loan or the without loan. Loan tenor could, further, be up to 7 years and customers save money from the very first day.

We also offer Opex, where Oorjan or our partner investor invests in the project and the customer, pays per unit.

6. Tell us something about your team.

Oorjan has a diverse team with experiences across renewable energy, engineering, finance, operations, and building a large business. Founder Ms. Roli Gupta worked in both financial and renewable energy industries while Gautam comes with an experience of building and managing a large business. Founding members include many IITians, IoT engineers, CA, CS, ex-bankers, engineers across disciplines, professions with experiences of managing large operations.

7. What is your opinion on PM Modi's Solar Project set up at Rewa, MP?

The adoption of 750 megawatts of solar in Rewa is a great milestone. It not only saves huge money but also saves the environment, and a great boost to the renewable energy ecosystem in India. This project is equivalent to the plantation of more than 36 million teak-wood trees i.e., mitigates 22 million tons of carbon0di-oxide over its project life. The renewable ecosystem in India is evolving fast and there is a trillion-dollar opportunity encompassing PM Modi’s mission to give a boost to “made-in-India”, creating employment, and contribute to a sustainable environment.

8. What are the challenges you faced while bringing Oorjan to this level? How did you overcome them?

We all at Oorjan had a very interesting journey and the learning continues. Many things went wrong and we passed through the valley of death a couple of times. The team is very agile and we iterate very fast basis our learning. We are also enjoying this journey. We are growing upward and onward.

9. Lastly, what is your vision for Oorjan?

Oorjan would like to be the most trusted brand in renewable energy and sustainable living space.

Funding details

Oorjan raised about 500,000 USD and is maintaining a healthy unit economy. The company plans to raise our next round soon.