New Delhi : Investment Fund for Developing Countries (Investeringsfonden for Udviklingslande) (IFU), a Development Financial Institution owned by the Government of Denmark, has extended its first investment under a Green Strategic partnership between India and Denmark to Smart Joules, India’s leading energy efficiency company.
Instituted under the realms of the India Green Finance Initiative, the IFU is committed to focus its investments that would drive the green transition for India, and its sustainability goals. Smart Joules, instituted in 2014, has been pioneering the energy efficiency through its industry-first Cooling-as-a-Service (CaaS) solution, that has been designed keeping energy efficiency at the core of it.
The quantum of investment secured amounts to USD 8 million, which will be instrumental in advancing Smart Joule’s vision towards reducing 29 million tonnes of carbon emissions by 2030. The funds will be allocated towards executing the organization’s robust pipeline of Cooling-as-a-Service partnerships with leading healthcare and hospitality chains, aimed at reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions while enhancing our customer’s profitability.
Additionally, the investment will further enable Smart Joules to foray into cooling-intensive sectors like data centres, pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, and commercial offices, with a focus on driving energy efficiency and reducing CO2 emissions.
The expected outcomes include the execution of portfolio-wide partnerships across various industries, resulting in an incremental reduction of approximately 7.5 lakh tonnes of CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the commitment to aiding customers in achieving a minimum 20% reduction in energy costs through capital expenditure interventions underscores Smart Joule’s commitment to making energy efficiency the default choice towards combating climate change and fostering sustainable practices across sectors.
Speaking about the development, Mr. Arjun Gupta, Founder and CEO said, “We are thrilled to be the first recipients of this investment and this couldn’t have come at a better moment in our journey. As a leap towards achieving our vision to reduce 29 million tonnes of carbon emissions by 2030, this investment will help us execute our robust pipeline of portfolio-wide Cooling-as-a-Service (CaaS) partnerships. Every dollar invested will go towards saving energy, carbon emissions and costs, allowing our customers to meet their decarbonisation and profitability objectives simultaneously and starting immediately. Our team is excited to unlock the potential energy we have been building up over the years.”
“We are very pleased to support Smart Joules that have proven solutions, which significantly reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from cooling of commercial buildings that are rapidly growing in numbers,” said Nitish Chawla, Senior Investment Manager at IFU.
Smart Joules is poised to make energy efficiency the default choice for all buildings and cooling intensive industries through its flagship service, JouleCOOL, that offers a One-Stop-Shop for its customers encompassing end-to-end services from design, implementation, operations, maintenance and energy optimization.
Under JouleCOOL, Smart Joules invests in cooling systems installed in large buildings and factories, and provides sustainable, high quality, convenient and cost-effective cooling services at a fixed cost per ton-hour of use. JouleCOOL clients pay for the cooling they actually consume while Smart Joules takes full responsibility for design, financing, project execution, operations and maintenance of the cooling infrastructure.