Today, Husk unveiled a bold new vision for the company’s future growth – an AI-driven distributed energy resources (DER) platform to deliver modern electricity to tens of millions of businesses, households and social institutions in the Global South by 2030.
Dubbed the “Powering Prosperity” platform, Husk made the announcement at the Africa Investment Forum (AIF) as the company formally kicked off fundraising for its Series E investment. Husk aims to secure $400 million in equity and debt to build out at least 2 gigawatts (GW) of distributed solar and battery energy storage systems (BESS) in South and Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa by the end of the decade. To date, Husk has raised more than $125 million and is already benefiting more than 2.2 million people in India and Nigeria, its two primary markets.
Husk’s DER platform is focused on three customers: communities, businesses and households. Isolated and grid-connected minigrids power entire communities, while commercial and industrial (C&I) and residential customers will be served by standalone rooftop and ground-mounted systems, on either a turnkey EPC basis or through power purchase agreements (PPA). The platform will also serve health facilities and schools.
“Recognized as the pioneer and world leader in the community solar minigrid industry, Husk has evolved into an AI-powered DER provider serving communities, households and businesses. Our new positioning is fully reflected in the businesses that we are operating and scaling in India and Nigeria today,” said Husk CEO & Co-Founder Manoj Sinha. “This opens up exciting new growth opportunities to take our nearly 10 years of experience and apply it with even greater impact by deploying 2GW by 2030. It also provides us the flexibility to serve new markets by tailoring DER solutions that best suit each country.”
Underpinning the platform is an advanced digital infrastructure that is powered by both predictive and agentic artificial intelligence (AI), Husk’s “central nervous system”.
For example, Husk’s AI algorithms accurately predict energy demand at each minigrid site and then agentic algorithms optimize operations of the power generating assets to meet the demand at the lowest possible cost at every 30 minute interval. These are state-of-the-art algorithms that not only minimize the delivered cost of energy, but also maximize renewable energy in the overall energy mix and provide improved customer service.
Husk’s expansion plans will accelerate Africa’s clean energy transition and Mission 300, a World Bank and African Development Bank initiative electrify 300 million people by 2030. The World Bank has identified community solar minigrids as the most capital efficient solution for bringing first-time electricity to 380 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa. Husk’s platform will also support the India government’s target of installing 500GW of non-fossil fuel based energy capacity by 2030.
