Solar powering >250,000 homes; reducing >600,000 tons of CO2 emissions/annum

And things are just ‘warming’ up!

“I was convinced that one day cost of solar power will be cheaper than that of coal. With that conviction and a set of excel sheets, I left a well settled corporate career and set foot into the daunting infrastructure industry.”

Meet the bold and very popular Tanya Singhal, Founder of Mynzo Carbon and Solar Arise.

Her accolades, include recognition in Fortune 40 under 40; Business World Sustainability Businessperson of the Year 2023; Asia's Most Influential Women in Renewable Energy; Business World's 40 under 40 and the Power 100 in 2022, 2021, 2019 to name a few. She’s also jury on the board of various ESG / climate awards.

Her entrepreneurial voyage took flight when she founded SolarArise, a solar asset management vehicle responsible for developing over half a GW of solar projects across 7 states in India with deployment of over INR 2000 Cr capital. Her leadership and influence extended beyond business operations as she collaborated with government and industry stakeholders to shape India’s renewable energy policies through close collaboration with the Ministry of Renewable Energy. After 8 years of leading SolarArise, Tanya successfully sold the firm to a trust listed on the London Stock Exchange.

With all this and more, she is our WICON of the month.

Read on…

The spark

She always had a head for numbers. And when she was in a presentation that was talking about how a tiny box of solar panels covering 7.5% of the desert can power up the entire country, she knew that’s what she was going after. She quit a flourishing career at BCG Consulting and founded Solar Arise in 2014.

Since then, she’s been a vocal advocate of solar power and climate action.  

Her family played a huge role in supporting her entrepreneurial dream. “They never saw differences between a male child and a female child, and for me that was half the battle won. I was also blessed with good co-founders, so work was never a burden.”

Navigating challenges

Early on in her journey, she was met with confusion and skepticism. “Infrastructure is a man’s world, why do you want to get involved? Why Solar, it is such a nascent industry. Why leave your comfortable job and get your hands dirty?” These were questions and comments that kept coming at her constantly.

She remembers an incident that typified the man’s world comment. “I was interviewing a candidate for a position at Solar Arise. At the end of the conversation, I was asked, “So, when I can meet the founder? It was an automatic assumption that I was HR because I was a woman, or that because I was a woman, I could not have possibly been the founder!” We can all imagine the look on the candidates face when he was told that the lady who interviewed him was the founder!

She quotes another incident, but with fond memories. “When we were looking to purchase land for one of our plants, we were met with skepticism. It took a long time to work around this and convince the locals that we were doing something that will help them in the long run. As our way of showing possibilities, we donated solar panels for the roofs of the school – so they understood firsthand the power of solar. We also donated cycles and laptops to assure them that we were committed to their well-being too.”

“I still remember, I was later honored with a pagdi (turban) that is usually given only to men (picture appended as part of the article). I knew for sure that day, that I was now a part of their community,” she says very fondly.

Tanya Singhal honored with a traditional pagdi

One thing she would like to see changed

“I want climate to become second nature to all of us to a point where it is not symbolism anymore; where it not something we need to do so we can tick off a box on a compliance list. It needs to become a coffee conversation, an inherent part of everything we do. Much like how Bollywood, Indian Cricket or OTT is part of every conversation.”

Changing the narrative

Here is her message for women entrepreneurs at large: “As a woman, do not put a gender bias to your dream! First dream. Use a belief or pillar to lean on – like something that drove you to start in the first place. The one thing that you can fight for, no matter what. Go from there. Stay the course for at least 4-5 years. Don’t judge yourself hastily - entrepreneurship and success takes time. Wait it out and don’t quit too early.”

Mynzo Carbon

Tanya is now building Mynzo Carbon – MyNetZer0 which uses AI to automatically measure emissions and create a 'climate-identity', offers personalized nudges to reduce carbon footprint and finally closes the loop by building 'My-Forest' for carbon recapture to get to Net Zero.