Odyssey Energy Solutions raised $74 million in mixed equity and debt financing to scale its platform for financing and procuring distributed renewable energy (DRE) projects in emerging markets.
Odyssey Energy Solutions’ recent $74 million round comprises a $27 million equity portion and $47 million in debt. New equity investors are Broadscale Group, FMO (the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank), and Al Mada Ventures. Existing investors participating include Union Square Ventures, Equal Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Twelve Below, FJ Labs, MCJ, and Transition Ventures. Debt providers are British International Investment (BII), BIO (Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries), the Facility for Energy Inclusion (represented by Cygnum Capital), and the Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund (represented by TripleJump).
This brings Odyssey’s total capital raised to approximately $94 million, following its $15 million Series A in May 2023 (led by Union Square Ventures). Earlier rounds included a ~$5.3–5.34 million seed in 2022 led by Equal Ventures. The company, headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, was founded in 2017 by Emily McAteer (Co-founder & CEO) and Piyush Mathur (Co-founder & Managing Director), with Cathy Zoi involved in the early founding team. McAteer previously served as Chief Revenue Officer of SunEdison’s Frontier Power microgrid unit and holds degrees from Brown, Harvard Kennedy School, and Stanford GSB. Mathur previously led Simpa Networks (acquired by ENGIE) and has a background in private equity and finance.
How does Odyssey Energy Solutions work?
Odyssey operates an end to end technology platform that connects more than 6,000 solar installers and engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) companies with financiers and equipment suppliers across more than 50 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It has facilitated access to approximately $3.6 billion in capital for distributed energy projects.
Core capabilities include:
- Financing facilitation (origination through asset management, portfolio tracking, and results based finance tools).
- A procurement marketplace (launched 2024) that aggregates equipment orders from smaller installers/EPCs for volume pricing and embeds supply chain credit to address working capital constraints.
- Portfolio management, asset analytics, remote monitoring/verification, and related tools.
The procurement platform has unlocked 1.5 GW of projects to date. Odyssey positions itself as bridging an upstream financing gap: traditional DRE capital often focuses on post construction funding, while smaller EPCs and installers struggle with equipment procurement and construction working capital even when customer demand exists.
How will Odyssey Energy Solutions use the funds?
Proceeds will expand the procurement platform and overall operations so EPCs can execute larger portions of their order books simultaneously, accelerating project deployment. Demand drivers cited include falling solar and battery costs, higher fossil fuel prices (e.g., diesel in Nigeria rising sharply amid supply disruptions), supportive policy, and surging electricity needs.
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India has been a standout growth market: Odyssey’s India business more than tripled (or grew ~205%) over the prior 12 months. Drivers include domestic manufacturing requirements for solar components (reshaping supply chains) and rapid data center/AI related electricity demand outpacing centralized grid capacity, increasing the role of distributed solar plus storage. Broader markets face similar dynamics, with diesel heavy systems (notably in parts of Africa) becoming less competitive.
Odyssey is also among the inaugural portfolio partners of Multiplier, an advisory firm co-founded by former U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office directors Jigar Shah and Jonathan Silver.
The round is substantial relative to prior raises and reflects investor confidence in Odyssey’s role as infrastructure for DRE scale-up in high growth emerging markets. Equity participation from both climate/tech VCs and development-finance oriented investors (FMO, Al Mada), combined with substantial development-finance debt (BII, BIO, FEI, etc.), aligns with the company’s hybrid model of commercial platform economics plus catalytic capital for emerging market projects. The emphasis on supply chain credit and aggregated procurement directly targets a persistent bottleneck for small to medium installers.
The financing strengthens Odyssey’s capacity to convert strong unit economics and demand into faster project throughput across its multi continent network, with particular near term momentum in India and continued focus on Africa and Latin America.
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