The startup is looking to tap into the emerging market of solar plants owing to the increased demand for alternative sources of energy Alfa Ventures, a proprietary fund introduced by angel investor Dhianu Das, has reportedly announced that it has made a strategic investment in Skilancer Solar Pvt. Ltd, a Noida-based startup. The funding will help the company to scale up technology and design, expand its team and grow geographically. Sources close to the matter mentioned that Skilancer Solar was incubated at Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow and offers an autonomous robot powered by artificial intelligence for regular cleaning of solar panels. The company is looking to tap into the emerging market for solar plants owing to the increased demand for alternative sources of energy. Supposedly, solar plants are facing losses due to conventional manual cleaning that occurs at a frequent rate of 15 days, which is not the most efficient way. The startup has come up with an autonomous robotic solution to address this problem. According to Dhianu Das, Founder of Alfa ventures, in 2019 new installations will reach about 14 gigawatts and this is around 50% more than the capacity added in 2018. Skilancer Solar was founded in 2017 by Manish Kumar, who is an instrumentation engineer with 10 years of experience and Neeraj Kumar, an IIT graduate with three years of experience in the solar industry. In addition, Manish Kumar is one of the co-founders of Precog Innovation Partners as well, a company dedicated towards bringing worldwide innovations to India. Apparently, Das had started Alfa Ventures in the early 2019 and contributed nearly 25% of the fund. The fund comprises an amount of Rs 100 crore and aims to make 25-30 bets, with a mean ticket size of Rs 1 crore. In April 2019, CivilCops, a newly found startup that manufactures civic tech offerings for smart cities, had secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Alfa Ventures. CivilCops is a social intelligence organization facilitating governments and empowering citizens to be more efficient, accessible, and effective in public service delivery, sources mentioned. Source Credit: https://www.vccircle.com/alfa-ventures-invests-in-solar-panel-cleaning-startup-skilancer/