Vietnam-based rooftop solar solution provider SmartSolar closed a debt financing round of $1.3 million, bringing the total funding to $3.15 million through a mix of both equity and debt.
The latest funding round includes a $300,000 senior loan from the SECO Startup Fund, a development finance initiative of Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). This marked SECO Start-up Fund’s first investment globally under its new management by iGravity and Seedstars.
In addition, the German travel company SKR Reisen provided $1 million in debt facility to the company.
With the debt financing, SmartSolar plans to fund its additional installations as well as continue to build its solar financing platform for Southeast Asia’s small and medium-sized businesses.
The new debt funding followed previously raised $1.85 million in seed funding led by Picus Capital and 2degrees, along with participation from early-stage venture capital firm Iterative.
“Equity helped us build the platform. Debt is what allows us to scale,” said founder and CEO Kevin Junker. “Having the SECO Start-up Fund as our first institutional lender is a strong signal that this model works commercially and from an impact perspective.”
Founded in 2024, the solar energy company, through its solar-as-a-service model, provides zero-upfront-cost rooftop solar solutions to Vietnam’s SMEs, claiming to reduce energy costs by 15-25%. SmartSolar finances, installs, and maintains rooftop systems on behalf of its clients.
The company has deployed nearly 4 MWp of solar capacity across over 75 systems for its customers, ranging from factories to automotive workshops and fitness centers, since its launch.
In 2025, announced solar debt financing came to $16.1 billion, 14% lower compared to $18.8 billion in 2024. Securitization deals totaled $3.4 billion across nine deals, according to Mercom’s recently released Annual and Q4 2025 Solar Funding and M&A report.
Earlier, in January 2026, SunLib, a French solar-as-a-service company, secured €25 million (~$29 million) from Épopée Gestion, which operates through its Infrastructure and Climate funds.
