Aerem Transforms Rooftop Solar Adoption with Full-Stack Financing Platform

India spends between $150 billion and $200 billion every year importing oil. Every geopolitical flare-up in the Middle East sends crude prices into a tailspin, and the country's energy security hangs in the balance. But here's the thing that makes Anand Jain's eyes light up: the sun delivers enough energy to India's rooftops in a single hour to meet the entire nation's electricity needs. The gap between that potential and reality is exactly what Aerem was built to close.

Anand Jain, Founder and CEO of Aerem, has spent 15 years watching India's solar industry grow from infancy into what he calls its "teenage years." A Yale MBA who traded his Wall Street dreams for solar panels, Anand co-founded Aerem in 2021 with a singular mission: make rooftop solar as easy to adopt as getting a car loan. Four years in, his FinTech-for-CleanTech platform has financed and enabled over 2,000 projects, and he's convinced the best is yet to come.

The Solar Revolution India Almost Missed

The numbers tell a story that most people haven't fully absorbed yet. Ten to twelve years ago, coal and gas attracted roughly 70% of all energy investment globally, while solar scraped by at 5%. Today, those numbers have completely flipped. More than 70% of all global energy investment now flows into solar, and coal and gas have shrunk to single digits.

Yet India has barely scratched the surface. According to Anand, the country has tapped only 5 to 7% of its total rooftop solar opportunity. Every household, every industrial shed, every commercial building could potentially generate its own power on-site and consume it on-site. That's the beauty of distributed solar — you don't need massive power plants or transmission infrastructure. You just need a roof and some sunlight.

"It pays off in two and a half to three years, and then you get the entire 25 years of free power," Anand explains with the kind of directness that comes from having repeated this pitch a thousand times. "Industry pays about nine rupees per unit. Solar costs three to four rupees. There is literally no asset class like this."

So Why Isn't Every Roof in India Already Solar?

If the economics are that compelling — and they genuinely are — then why hasn't rooftop solar exploded across the country? Anand breaks the problem down into three interconnected barriers that have kept millions of potential adopters on the sideline.

These three problems don't exist in isolation — they feed off each other. Without financing, customers can't buy. Without trust, they won't buy. And without reliable procurement, installers can't deliver consistent quality even when they do land a customer. Aerem's insight was that you can't solve just one of these problems. You have to tackle all three simultaneously.

How Aerem Built a Full-Stack Solar Platform

Aerem operates through three deeply interconnected business verticals that function as a single holistic platform. The word "Aerem" itself is Latin for "clean air," which tells you everything about where Anand's head is at.

The first vertical is financing, powered by NetZero Finance, Aerem's own RBI-licensed NBFC. This is where Aerem pioneered what Anand calls an "asset finance approach" to solar lending. Rather than treating a solar installation like a generic consumer loan, NetZero Finance underwrites it as an asset — because that's exactly what it is. A solar system on your roof is a productive, revenue-generating asset with a 25-year lifespan.

The second vertical is procurement, handled through SunStore — a B2B online marketplace where installers can buy solar equipment at competitive prices. This solves the supply chain headache for smaller installers and ensures consistent quality across Aerem's network.

The third vertical is technology. Aerem provides digital tools for the entire ecosystem, including a digital lending platform for customers and AeROC, a solar performance monitoring portal that works with any inverter brand. These tech solutions tie the financing and procurement pieces together into a seamless experience.

"These three businesses talk to each other very deeply," Anand explains. "They're symbiotically connected and act holistically as a platform." It's not three separate companies bolted together. It's one platform with three expressions, each reinforcing the others.

The Technology Question: Should You Wait?

One of the most common objections Anand hears from potential customers is the classic "I'll wait for the technology to improve" argument. People see what's happening with EV batteries — energy density doubling, charging speeds increasing — and assume solar panels must be on a similar trajectory.

Anand is blunt about this: don't wait.

This is an important distinction from EVs. While battery technology is still on a steep improvement curve, solar photovoltaic cells have already reached a plateau of efficiency that won't dramatically change the economics. The panels you install today will perform essentially as well as the panels available five years from now. The only difference is you'll have missed five years of savings.

Standalone Solar vs. The Hybrid Future

Right now, the vast majority of Aerem's installations are standalone solar systems — solar panels without battery storage. The way it works is straightforward: during the daytime, your rooftop solar generates electricity and feeds it directly into your home or business. When solar isn't generating — evenings, nights, cloudy days — you seamlessly draw from the grid, exactly as you've always done.

"Nothing changes for the customer," Anand clarifies. "It's just that in the main power line, a solar line is attached. Preference is given to solar generation, and when any excess power requirement is there, you draw from the grid."

But the hybrid future is coming fast. As battery costs continue to fall and several Indian states begin mandating storage alongside new solar installations, Anand sees a world where rooftop solar can meet a household's or business's power needs around the clock — not just during daylight hours. That transition, he says, will be the real disruption of the grid as we know it.

Energy Security and the Geopolitical Tailwind

Anand has been making the energy security argument for solar since before most people were paying attention. Back in 2011-12, while at KPMG, he authored a report called "Rising Sun" that laid out the case for India's solar transition from a geopolitical perspective. Everything that's happened since has only reinforced that thesis.

India's dependence on imported oil isn't just an economic burden — it's a strategic vulnerability. Every crisis in the Middle East, from the 1979 Iranian revolution to the recent conflicts, has reinforced why energy independence matters. When you transition to solar, you eliminate that dependence entirely. The sun doesn't have geopolitical opinions. It doesn't impose trade conditions. It just shows up every morning.

And then there's the EV angle that Anand raised which deserves attention. Right now, about 78% of India's electricity is generated from coal and gas. So when someone buys an electric vehicle, they're essentially substituting oil for coal-generated electricity. The real clean transition happens only when that electricity itself comes from solar. Rooftop solar charging an EV at home — that's the endgame. That's genuine zero-emission transportation.

India's Manufacturing Revolution in Solar

One of the biggest concerns about India's solar push has been the heavy dependence on Chinese imports for equipment. Until 2023-24, India imported 80-90% of its solar modules from China. But in just two years, that number has crashed to 10-15%. That's a massive shift driven by the government's Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) program.

India's module manufacturing capacity has grown tenfold and now exceeds 120-130 gigawatts. Major players like Reliance, Adani, Waaree, ReNew, Premier Energies, and Vikram Solar have committed billions to building manufacturing capacity and are even backward-integrating into cells, wafers, and the broader ecosystem. Modules constitute about 55-60% of a solar plant's total cost, so domestic manufacturing at this scale fundamentally changes the supply chain equation.

Lessons from 15 Years in Solar

Having watched the solar industry evolve from literally zero to its current scale, Anand offers two pieces of advice that apply well beyond clean energy. The first is about persistence. "You don't need to rush through. Take your time to decide, and while speed is important, perseverance and persistence are what actually move the needle," he says.

The second is about judgment. Anand believes that knowing what not to do is more important than knowing what to do. "Collect the entire information set. If you don't know something, gather everything you can, and then decide. About 80% of the time, those decisions have to be right. And that's what moves the firm forward."

He's also emphatic about the importance of team building. Aerem, now 150+ people strong, takes pride in having assembled a leadership team that can independently drive various functions of the business. "Alone you can't build," Anand says simply. "You need a team, and you need leaders who can drive your mission forward."

Key Takeaways

• Solar is already cheaper than coal: At Rs 3-4 per unit versus Rs 9, the economics are overwhelming. A rooftop system pays for itself in under three years and delivers 25 years of essentially free electricity.
• The technology has stabilized: Unlike EVs where waiting might get you a better battery, solar panels won't dramatically improve. Delaying adoption means leaving money on the table every single day.
• Financing is the real bottleneck: The product works, the economics work, but traditional banks can't underwrite solar. Specialized platforms like Aerem with deep solar expertise are essential to unlocking mass adoption.
• India's solar manufacturing is booming: Chinese import dependence has fallen from 90% to 10-15% in just two years, with domestic capacity now exceeding 120 GW.
• The best years are ahead: India has tapped only 5-7% of its rooftop solar potential. As Anand puts it, the industry is entering its teenage years — the entire adulthood is still ahead.

About the Guest

Anand Jain is the Founder and CEO of Aerem. With a career spanning over 24 years, Anand holds an MBA from Yale School of Management and has worked across global firms including KPMG, Barclays, and SunEdison. He has been working exclusively in India's solar industry since 2010, making him one of the earliest professionals in the space. He co-founded Aerem in 2021 alongside Vikesh Agrawal to solve the adoption barriers that have kept rooftop solar from reaching its full potential in India.

Aerem is a Mumbai-headquartered FinTech-for-CleanTech platform that provides end-to-end solutions for distributed solar adoption. Operating through three interconnected verticals — financing (NetZero Finance, an RBI-licensed NBFC), procurement (SunStore, a B2B marketplace), and technology (digital lending and monitoring tools) — Aerem has enabled over 2,000 solar projects across 65+ cities in India. The company recently raised Rs 100 crore in Series A funding led by UTEC (University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners), with participation from British International Investment and SE Ventures.