
A New Investment In The Solar Energy Transformation (SET) Fund
March 05, 2019
Calvert Impact Capital recently invested $7.5mm in the Solar Energy Transformation (SET) Fund, a new fund managed by our partner SunFunder that will provide financing for high impact solar energy projects in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Through the businesses that SET Fund will finance, SunFunder expects to provide 2.8 million people with improved access to clean energy and mitigate over 480k tons of CO2 emissions annually.
Calvert Impact Capital first invested in SunFunder in 2015 and our investment has grown with them over the past four years. A pioneer in offering debt financing for off-grid solar companies serving household consumers, SunFunder has expanded their portfolio to support income-generating and productive-use assets and small commercial and industrial (C&I) solar projects that are needed to scale access to electricity in energy poor in emerging economies.
This investment in the SET Fund is a great example of Calvert Impact Capital's renewable energy investment strategy in action. We looked to incubate and strengthen the funds and financial intermediaries like SunFunder that can provide a range of financing to social enterprises in this sector. In other words, we are committed to building a market, not just 'picking winners.' We make investments to strengthen the sector's financial infrastructure by investing from our own balance sheet as well as syndicating a portion of the fund to crowd-in capital from additional private investors. Accredited investors can learn more about syndication opportunities here.
Calvert Impact Capital is proud to join other impact investors, including the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), Ceniarth, and the IKEA Foundation in bringing the first close of the SET fund to a total of $42.5mm.
We look forward to continuing to work with SunFunder and other impact investors to bring clean, reliable electricity to the more than 2 billion people around the globe that currently lack it.
Read the SET Fund press release here: ["SunFunder reaches first close on new $85m solar energy debt fund"](https://sunfunder.com/news/setfundfirstclose ""SunFunder reaches first close on new $85m solar energy debt fund"")