Banque Alternative Suisse invests in SmartHelio

Investment fund foundation of Banque Alternative Suisse (BAS) has participated in the CHF 250'000 raised. Contacted by Startupticker.ch, SmartHelio CEO Govinda Upadhyay, explains that the funding is a mix of equity and convertible loan. Among the other investors are venture kick and business angels. The mission driven company aims to accelerate adoption of clean energy in our society through digital technology.

Through this investment, BAS will help the the Swiss Edtech Collider based startup move towards its sustainable goal and brings a network of like-minded people. SmartHelio grew almost 200% in the last six months with a strong traction in India and growing interest in Europe. Since the COVID outbreak, solar companies are looking for deep data analytics solutions which can help them increase production as well as optimize logistics.

Govinda Upadhyay (CEO and founder of SmartHelio): "Sustainability is core of our value and the collaboration with Banque Alternative Suisse will help us to accelerate our impact globally."

Edy Walter (Head of investment at Alternative Bank Schweiz): "SmartHelio has developed a cost-effective, easy-to-install monitoring and diagnostic solution to increase the performance of solar plants and ensure rapid maintenance. We see great opportunities for this innovation to have a positive impact on the photovoltaic solar market and thus make an important contribution to the spread of renewable energy."

Sharpening the tool and expanding

Two weeks ago, SmartHelio received an Innosuisse project grant to further develop its HelioHealth sensor and deepdata analytics tool for solar plants. Total value of the project is CHF 800’000 for 18 months. Working in collaboration with Institute of Electrical Engineering of Master of Science in Banking and Finance of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, SmartHelio will further enhance the capabilities of its sensor, make it more cost effective and smarter. This project will also help the startup make the solar fault detection algorithm 50% faster. 

In the next months, SmartHelio plans to scale its operations in India. Currently the startup is working with top 10 solar companies in the country and aims to create a strong brand associated with quality and performance enhancement of solar plants. SmartHelio will also start scaling in Switzerland and Europe. They already have 5 pilots running in the EU and want to target companies in Germany, France, Italy and Spain. SmartHelio employs 11 people, 2 in Switzerland, 3 in the EU and the rest in India.

(ES)