Sun King, a global leader in off-grid solar energy, has secured a $40 million equity investment from sustainable investment platform Lightrock. The funding will support the company’s expansion across Africa and Asia, while strengthening product development and service infrastructure. The investment aims to accelerate access to reliable, clean, and affordable energy for millions of underserved households and businesses without consistent power.
Expanding Energy Access for Underserved Communities
For more than 18 years, Sun King has built a distributed energy model that combines solar generation, energy-efficient appliances, installation, and consumer financing into a single integrated offering. Since its founding in 2007, the company has delivered over 29 million solar products, with approximately 67 percent of its customers gaining access to electricity for the first time. This approach directly targets communities living beyond the reach of traditional power grids.
Central to Sun King’s model is its pay-as-you-go financing system, which allows customers to access solar solutions for roughly $0.15 to $0.20 per day over 12 to 24 months. This structure has unlocked more than $1.4 billion in customer financing to date, eliminating high upfront costs and enabling low-income households to replace kerosene, diesel, and other polluting fuels with clean solar power.
Strategic Growth and Operational Scale-Up
T. Patrick Walsh, CEO and Co-Founder of Sun King, highlighted the company’s rapid growth, noting that monthly sales increased from around 10,000 solar kits in 2017 to more than 330,000 today. He stated that Lightrock’s investment supports Sun King’s ambition to distribute one million solar kits per month by 2030, addressing the basic energy needs of up to 200 million people.
To support this scale-up, Sun King plans to significantly expand its physical footprint and workforce between 2025 and 2030. The company aims to grow its retail network from approximately 470 shops to around 1,650 locations, while expanding its field agent network toward roughly 90,000 agents. This on-the-ground infrastructure will support last-mile sales, installation, servicing, and customer engagement across its operating markets.
Driving Product Innovation and Sustainable Impact
The new capital will also be used to accelerate product innovation, enabling Sun King to develop more powerful, durable, and cost-effective solar systems. In addition to its core solar offerings, the company is expanding into energy-efficient appliances such as refrigerators and smartphones, as well as clean-cooking technologies designed to improve health outcomes, increase household productivity, and stimulate local economic activity.
Arul Thomas, Partner at Lightrock, described Sun King as a proven and scalable solution to the global energy access challenge. The investment aligns with Sun King’s target to deploy 3.8 gigawatts of new decentralized solar capacity by 2030, equivalent to the output of roughly three large coal-fired power plants. Lightrock emphasized its confidence in Sun King’s ability to deliver measurable social, economic, and environmental impact at scale.
This $40 million investment marks a significant milestone for Sun King, strengthening its capacity to combat energy poverty and accelerate the transition to clean energy. The partnership with Lightrock will help expand affordable solar access across Africa and Asia, reinforcing Sun King’s position as a key player in the global shift toward sustainable and inclusive energy systems.