British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution, and Denmark’s Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) have jointly committed up to $300 million (Rs 2,897 crore) to North Star, a new platform aimed at financing solar, wind, hybrid and storage projects in India.
The new investment vehicle marks the first deployment under BII’s recently launched British Climate Partners (BCP) initiative, a £1.1 billion ($1.48 billion) effort to mobilize institutional capital for energy transition in coal-heavy Asian economies.
BII and CIP’s Growth Markets Fund II (GMF II) will each put in up to $150 million, with the structure intended to attract additional private capital over time.
BII and CIP said the platform will target investing in India’s renewable sector, where ambitious targets — 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030 and net-zero by 2070 — clash with persistent financing and execution gaps estimated at $160 billion annually until the end of the decade.
North Star’s projects are projected to generate over 4 million MWh of clean energy and avoid roughly 4 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions per year once operational.
BII and CIP’s current India play
The joint investment platform launched by the two European investors builds on both firms’ existing India footprint, though challenges in scaling renewables remain.
BII has been one of the more active development finance players in the sector. In 2018, it seeded Ayana Renewable Power with a $100 million commitment. The platform grew with follow-on capital from NIIF and others, developed over 4 GW of solar, wind and round-the-clock projects, and was sold in early 2025 to ONGC NTPC Green for an enterprise value of $2.3 billion. BII described the exit as successful catalytic capital at work.
BII has also backed Fourth Partner Energy (FPEL), a leading commercial and industrial (C&I) renewable provider, with roughly $80 million in mezzanine debt facilities to support over 500 MW of capacity across India and parts of Southeast Asia. Other investments include stakes supporting ReNew Energy Global’s solar manufacturing ambitions ($100 million in 2025) and various transmission, distribution and smart metering plays.
In the grid modernization space, BII has financed smart metre deployments through Apraava Energy (part of a $92 million package with Standard Chartered for around 2 million metres) and Polaris Smart Metering (Rs 710 crore, or around $80-85 million, for over 2.2 million metres in West Bengal). These address aggregate technical and commercial losses and aid renewable integration but form only part of the broader distribution reform push under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme.
BII has extended its climate push into electric mobility, with investments in GreenCell Mobility for electric buses and other EV ecosystem players, contributing to over $1 billion in climate commitments in India in recent years.
CIP, a specialist in greenfield energy infrastructure, has partnered in India previously with Ampin Energy Transition (formerly Amp Energy India). Earlier commitments through its New Markets Fund supported an around 1.7 GW Unicus solar and hybrid portfolio.
More recent extensions target another around 2 GW, bringing combined exposure toward $1.5 billion in asset value across solar, wind, hybrid and storage.
CIP’s GMF II, with a $3 billion target across select high-growth markets, positions North Star as part of a broader push into Asia and beyond.
Rohit Anand, MD and head of Asia Infrastructure at BII, framed the move as leveraging the firm’s India experience and BCP’s mandate to mobilize capital where need and opportunity intersect. CIP’s Peter Jannik Sjøntoft highlighted India’s strategic importance and the combination of local insight with global expertise.
The North Star announcement is the latest in a string of climate-focussed moves but arrives against a backdrop of tightening global capital conditions and India’s need for faster, cheaper execution if it is to meet its 2030 targets without compromising reliability or affordability.
North Star enters a competitive landscape. Domestic players, international funds, and other DFIs continue to deploy capital, while sovereign-backed entities have also been eying scaled platforms.
BII, with total net assets around £9.87 billion and a mandate focussed on poverty reduction and climate, plans for at least 40% of new commitments through 2031 to qualify as climate finance. CIP manages tens of billions across funds focussed on greenfield renewables globally.
