Clime Capital Management and Touchstone Partners have on Wednesday announced a joint investment into Stride, an innovative cleantech company operating in Vietnam.
“Stride is excited to partner with Clime Capital and Touchstone Partners to support Vietnam’s low carbon transition,” Stride Chief Executive Officer Andrew Fairthorne said in a statement.
According to him, the investment enables Stride to accelerate its deployment of clean energy solutions to more households and small businesses across Vietnam, thus reducing their energy expenses and assisting Vietnam in achieving its net zero targets.
Stride is a firm aims to accelerate Vietnam’s low carbon transition by providing households and small businesses with eco-friendly home improvement projects, smart home technology, energy-efficient products and access to solar energy.
The firm helps residential and small business consumers take the next step toward a clean energy future with an affordable, transparent, and simple way to pay for eco friendly home improvement projects and solar installations at the point of sale with 0 percent interest.
In the last two years, Stride has experienced rapid growth as the first company in Vietnam to offer low, upfront-cost financing, complimentary insurance, independent quality assurance, and a streamlined online consumer onboarding process.
Stride has received increasing interest from residential and small business consumers who want to shift to lower-cost clean energy to reduce energy costs.
The firm addresses this interest with a commercial solution that removes the barrier to high up-front costs.
“Southeast Asia Clean Energy Facility (SEACEF)’s investment in Stride will support the company’s growth at a critical stage of its development to set Stride on an accelerated pathway to scale its delivery of clean energy solutions,” said Joshua Kramer, Chief Investment Officer at Clime Capital.
According to him, Stride’s effort to provide quality assurance and financing to residential and small business customers reduces barriers to adoption of rooftop solar and other clean energy solutions, enabling its customers to save money while reducing their carbon footprint.
Clime Capital is a Singapore-headquartered fund management company and the manager of SEACEF.
The Clime Capital team consists of senior professionals with deep Southeast Asian market experience in clean energy investments and developments.
It has an on-the-ground presence in Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore.
Tu Ngo, General Partner at Touchstone Partners, said the firm places a priority on investing in promising startups that are developing solutions to help address climate change, and they are excited to partner with Stride and support their vision to facilitate Vietnam’s transition to a sustainable future.
“Vietnam’s recent approval of Power Development Plan 8, which encourages homes and businesses to install solar systems for self consumption, makes Stride’s solutions all the more relevant and timely,
“By making green energy projects for households and small businesses more accessible and affordable, Stride is enabling more people to contribute to Vietnam reaching its goal of becoming carbon net neutral and, just as importantly, save money on their own electricity costs in the process,” she said.
Touchstone Partners is an early-stage venture capital fund in Vietnam committed to investing in startups with the potential to create a major impact on people and the environment.
The firm’s investment capital comes from Pavilion Capital, Cercano Management, and several major governmental and private financial institutions in the region and the world.
With more than 20 investments to date, its core investment areas include tech and tech-enabled businesses in fintech, healthcare, education, supply chain, consumer sector, deeptech, agriculture and climate change.
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