SustVest: An investment platform promoting large-scale adoption of renewable energy in India
India’s solar power generation capacity has increased substantially over the past decade, rising from 76.3 GW in 2014 to 203.1 GW in 2024. India’s 2030 vision has a significant focus on green growth, with a target to build 500 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030. With the renewable energy industry going through a phase of rapid technological innovations, there is immense potential to scale the adoption of renewable energy across industries. Despite the significant reduction of costs in solar energy projects over the past decades, small retail investors often find it difficult to invest in renewable energy projects. Fractional ownership is an innovative approach that enables small owners to own a small fraction of a large-scale renewable energy project.
Founded in 2018, SustVest is a sustainable investment platform that allows individuals and companies to invest in fractional ownership of clean energy projects such as solar and electric vehicles (EV) charging points. It allows users to invest as little as INR 5,000 (~US$ 59.5), setting it apart from platforms requiring significantly larger investments for commercial renewable energy projects. SustVest’s platform provides complete transparency on projects and information on expected returns through its user-friendly interface.
Investors to their listed projects hold digital ownership of the assets, which get leased to consumers who pay every month, and the return is then distributed among the pool of investors. Through its platform, users can upload their documents for verification, browse through different assets, and calculate their returns. Once selected, the investment can be processed via SustVest’s secured payment gateway, with zero processing fees, making the entire process digital.
The ’fractional ownership’ approach reduces the financial burden on a single investor and helps individuals earn proportional returns on their investments. This could be particularly beneficial for renewable energy projects as they tend to be typically capital intensive and thus restricted to large investors, reducing barriers to access. SustVest, which serves as a business-to-customer (B2C) platform, also helps corporates and medium to small-scale enterprises (MSMEs) to transition to solar energy and save electricity costs with zero upfront investments. Since its launch, SustVest has sold INR 20 crore (~US$2.3 million) worth of solar projects and generated an income of INR 1 crore (~US$119,111) in energy income.
By connecting the capital to solar projects, SustVest is building a scalable renewable energy asset and making green investing affordable and accessible to small-scale owners in India. As SustVest grows, it aims to introduce new assets such as small hydro and wind power projects, and build a robust pipeline of investable assets.
