Reliance to buy 79.4% stake in SenseHawk for $32 million

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries has signed agreements to acquire a majority stake in U.S.-bases software-as-a-service firm SenseHawk Inc for $32 million.

India's largest private company will acquire a 79.4% stake in SenseHawk, through primary infusion and secondary purchase, according to RIL's stock exchange filing.

The deal also includes funding for future growth, commercial rollout of products, and R&D.

Founded in 2018, SenseHawk is an early-stage California-based developer of software-based management tools for the solar energy generation industry. SenseHawk helps accelerate solar projects from planning to production by helping companies streamline processes and use automation.

SenseHawk, along with RIL's other investments in New Energy, will be synergistic and create unique solutions with higher value to customers, the oil-to-telecom conglomerate says.

"RIL is committed to revolutionise the Green Energy sector and has a vision to enable 100 GW of solar energy by 2030. In collaboration with SenseHawk, we will drive down costs, enhance productivity and improve on-time performance to deliver the lowest LCoE for solar projects globally and make solar energy the go-to source of power in lockstep with our vision for solar energy," says Mukesh Ambani, chairman, Reliance Industries.

SenseHawk's solar digital platform offers end-to-end management of solar asset life cycles.

"The SenseHawk team foresees strategic value in working with RIL, as one of the largest global infrastructure corporations, and look forward to this next phase in our growth," says Swarup Mavanoor, CEO and co-founder, SenseHawk.

The U.S.-based company claims it has helped over 140 customers in 15 countries adopt new technology for their over 600 sites and assets over 100 gigawatt.

"We are on a mission to improve the solar energy ecosystem, acquiring 50% of the market by 2025 and with RIL as our partner, we will accelerate on our execution toward that goal," says Rahul Sankhe, president and co-founder, SenseHawk.

The transaction is subject to certain regulatory and other customary closing conditions and is expected to complete before the end of 2022.

The deal comes days after RIL's 45th annual general meeting where Ambani said the company will be setting up a giga factory for photovoltaic panels, energy storage, green hydrogen and for fuel cell systems.

"Our aim is to establish and enable at least 100GW of solar energy by 2030. The work done so far has reaffirmed my conviction in solar energy and has provided further impetus to our investment thesis to establish four Giga Factories," Ambani had said. "We have invested and partnered with leading companies globally in areas of solar, battery and electrolysers. With each of these partnerships, we gained access to unique technology, know-how, and an eager and vibrant talent pool, ready to disrupt the world."