Clean energy venture Auro Mira receives $21 million from PE leading consortium

Clean energy venture Auro Mira Energy Company Private Limited, today said that it had raised $21 million through its second round of institutional funding by a consortium of PE investors comprising of Aureos South Asia Fund, IFC and ePlanet Ventures for a minority stake.

Auro Mira was founded in 2005 with funding support from a PE Fund advised by Baring India and has currently two sites in India generating renewable energy using biomass for sale to corporates across the country. The company has aggressive expansion plans and has commenced four new renewable energy projects in small hydro and biomass sector to attain 100 MW generation capacity by 2012. It currently has two operating biomass projects of 7.5 MW and 10 MW size.

The investment by the three private equity investors will enable Auro Mira to underrtake the execution of these projects as well as acquire land and licences for further new projects.

Commenting on the PE investment, N. Srinivasan, founder, Auro Mira Energy Company Private Limited said, ''The exploding potential for renewable energy holds enormous opportunity for Auro Mira. The company is well poised with demonstrated project management capability, operational performance & profitability including revenue from carbon credit. This investment by IFC Washington, Aureos and ePlanet recognises AME's achievements and will greatly support the future growth plans''

Balaji Srinivas, managing partner at Aureos Capital, Indian operations, said, ''Auro Mira is a company that has a very successful track record and their focus on the production of renewable energy ties in perfectly with our own commitment to working with our investee companies to improve all aspects of their sustainability and environmental awareness.''

Private equity fund Aureos Capital specialises in providing expansion and buy-out capital to small and medium sized businesses across Asia, Africa and Latin America. Since its inception in 2001, Aureos has increased its funds under management to over $1.2 billion and extended its geographical footprint to over 50 emerging markets covering Asia, Africa and Latin America, by establishing 16 regional private equity funds. Investors in Aureos funds include institutional investors, bilateral and multilateral development finance institutions, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, fund of funds, family offices and foundations and high net worth individuals.