The archive · Climate & Energy · Strategic decision · 2021–2026
Stride bets on financing Vietnam's rooftop solar: $15M Series B, 7.25x value
Stride removes the upfront cost of rooftop solar for Vietnam's homes and SMEs; a May 2026 $15M Series B funds reaching 200,000 more people.
Stride
What the business is
Stride is a Vietnam-based distributed rooftop solar and battery financing platform: it offers payment plans and insurance, combines them with technical verification and quality assurance, and works through a network of EPC installer partners to serve households and micro, small and medium enterprises.
Starting capital：A $2M seed in May 2023 co-led by Clime Capital (SEACEF I) and Touchstone Partners; debt financing arranged from Sweden's Trine in 2024; an undisclosed Series A equity round in March 2025; and a $15M Series B announced in May 2026 co-led by Lightrock and TRIREC through Accelerate7.
How it started
Co-founder and CEO Andrew Fairthorne started Stride in 2021 in Vietnam, betting that rising electricity demand and the country's rooftop-solar push would meet a financing layer that removed the upfront cost for households and small businesses. Clime Capital and Touchstone Partners backed the idea with seed equity in May 2023.
What happened
Stride scaled across Vietnam through installer partnerships, arranging debt financing from Sweden's Trine in 2024 and closing an undisclosed Series A in March 2025 led by UOB Venture Management with Clime Capital (via SEACEF II) and Touchstone Partners. In May 2026 it announced a $15M Series B co-led by Lightrock and TRIREC through Accelerate7, with Clime Capital and UOB Venture Management returning; Touchstone took a partial exit, saying Stride's valuation had grown 7.25x since its seed and its project portfolio had nearly tripled.
How it ended up
Still scaling. Stride says the Series B will expand its platform in Vietnam and other markets, strengthen its digital and quality-assurance systems, and widen access to rooftop solar and batteries, with a goal of helping 200,000 more people access clean energy by 2030.
Background
Stride launched in 2021 in Vietnam with co-founder and CEO Andrew Fairthorne, on the premise that rooftop solar and battery storage would not scale among households and micro, small and medium enterprises as long as buyers had to pay the full system cost upfront and could not tell a good installation from a bad one.
The answer was a financing layer instead of a panel business: Stride packages tailored financing with payment plans and insurance, adds technical verification and strict quality assurance, and routes projects through a wide network of existing rooftop-solar installers. Clime Capital (SEACEF I) and Touchstone Partners co-led a $2M seed in May 2023, Sweden's Trine provided debt financing in 2024, and an undisclosed Series A in March 2025 brought UOB Venture Management in alongside the early backers.
In May 2026 Stride announced a $15M Series B co-led by Lightrock and TRIREC through the Accelerate7 platform, with Clime Capital and UOB Venture Management returning. Early investor Touchstone Partners took a partial exit, saying Stride's valuation had grown 7.25x since its seed and its project portfolio had nearly tripled; MVApulse reported a network of more than 75 verified EPC partners and a goal of helping 200,000 more people access clean energy by 2030.
The company says the new capital will expand the platform in Vietnam and other markets, strengthen its digital and quality-assurance systems, and increase access to rooftop solar and batteries — a test of whether distributed-energy financing, not hardware or policy, is the unlock for Southeast Asian rooftop solar.
What has to be true
- Vietnam's residential and SME rooftop segment had demand but no financing: high upfront cost and quality fears blocked adoption, so a checkout layer could unlock a market that panel vendors could not.
- The model is asset-light: Stride finances and verifies while more than 75 EPC partners install, so growth scaled without owning a hardware or installation workforce.
- Early investors doubled down — Clime backed the seed, Series A (SEACEF II) and Series B — and Touchstone's partial exit after a 7.25x gain showed the thesis maturing.
- Mainstream climate capital arrived at Series B: Lightrock and TRIREC co-led through Accelerate7, signaling the model moved beyond impact-first funds.
- Vietnam's power plans assumed tens of gigawatts of new solar by 2030, giving a rooftop financier a long demand curve to ride.
What can be applied
Finance the customer instead of selling the hardware: remove the upfront cost, verify the installation, and let a wide EPC network carry delivery.
Aftermath
As of 24 May 2026, Stride is scaling across Vietnam with more than 75 verified EPC partners. Its May 2026 Series B raised $15M, co-led by Lightrock and TRIREC through Accelerate7 with Clime Capital and UOB Venture Management returning; early backer Touchstone Partners took a partial exit, citing a 7.25x valuation gain since the 2023 seed and a nearly tripled project portfolio. Stride says the capital will fund expansion in Vietnam and other markets, stronger digital and QA systems, and wider access to rooftop solar and batteries, targeting 200,000 more people with clean energy by 2030.
Sources
- Vietnam's renewable energy startup Stride raises $15M in Series B round as Touchstone partially exits
- Vietnam's Stride secures series A equity from UOB Venture Management, Clime Capital, Touchstone Partners
- Solar Financing Platform Stride Secures $15 Million Series B
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