Green energy startup igrenEnergi gets fresh funding

igrenEnergi Inc, a US-headquartered startup incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, has raised fresh funding to launch a product that it claims will improve the efficiency of solar energy panels.

The company secured the investment from New York-based angel investor Sunil Mehta, it said in a statement. The statement didn't specify the amount Mehta invested in this round but said his total exposure to the company has now risen to $1 million.

igrenEnergi said it will use the money for the commercial launch of its first product, an eight­-panel Solar Optimizer.

The startup says it is building products for efficient energy conversion and storage, based on its patented "Energy Packetization" architecture.

igrenEnergi has offices in San Diego, Mumbai and Bangalore. It plans to initially release its products in India, followed by the US and Europe.

The company was founded in 2013 by IIT alumni with advanced degrees in engineering and management from the US. The company has three co-founders -- IIT Bombay alumni Jiten Apte and Sunit Tyagi and IIT Kharagpur's Sujit Dey. Apte is the CEO while Tyagi is chief technology officer.

Mehta is a technology entrepreneur who has built and invested in $100-million businesses in the US, Europe, South America and Asia. His angel investments have focused on business services, mobile, ed-tech and clean energy sectors.