Stride lands $15M Series B as Touchstone Partners realises 7.25x partial exit
What's the deal? Touchstone PartnersDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a climate-tech venture capital fund, has announced a partial exit from Stride, Vietnam's leading decentralised rooftop solar platform for households and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The move comes as Stride's valuation has grown more than 7.25x since Touchstone first invested.
The exit coincides with Stride closing a $15M Series B round led by LightrockDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and TRIRECDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → through the Accelerate7 platform. Existing investors — Clime CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s SEACEF II fund and UOB VentureDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → Management's Asia Impact Investment FundDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → II — also participated.
Why now? Touchstone's director, Ngo Thuy Ngoc Tu, said Stride's business model has been validated and is scaling, making a partial exit a natural step for both sides. Freeing up capital allows Touchstone to back new climate-focused ventures in Vietnam.
Vietnam's government has been pushing rooftop solar adoption and energy efficiency, with the prime minister calling for 3% electricity savings and faster deployment of residential solar. That policy tailwind likely helped attract fresh Series B capital and made the timing right for Touchstone to realise gains.
What could go wrong? Vietnam's rooftop solar sector still faces regulatory uncertainty. Authorities have flagged installation violations that can draw fines of tens of millions of dong, and shifting grid-connection rules could slow adoption. Stride will also need to prove it can deploy its new capital efficiently across a fragmented market of small customers.
The signal: Stride's Series B drew a notably deep bench of impact-focused funds — Lightrock, TRIREC, Clime Capital, and UOB Venture Management — all classified as dedicated investment funds on Dealroom, underscoring how specialised climate capital is converging on Southeast Asian distributed energy. With Stride still at the early growth stage yet already delivering a 7.25x valuation jump for its earliest backer, the round suggests investor appetite for decentralised solar in emerging markets is outpacing the sector's maturity curve.
Read more: thesaigontimes.vn
