A Filipino-first innovation, Helios, the first solar mortgage program in the Philippines and in Asia, is changing the local energy landscape by allowing Filipino homes access to affordable solar financing solutions, halving countless of families’ electricity bills and providing protection to consumers against fluctuating power costs.
“We’d like to call ourselves a climate fintech platform. Think of us as a process orchestrator. You have the bank who wants to finance loans, the customer who wants to acquire solar since they’re dealing with high Meralco bills, and the installer. All of these three parties want that transaction to happen. But there’s a lot of coordination that has to happen. Helios coordinates all the processes. We’re the platform in the middle. We aggregate the installers and the banks,” said Helios co-founder and chief customer officer, former athlete Alex Aronson.
Aronson said the company aims to be the first to make solar financing accessible, democratizing access of homeowners to sustainable and reliable source of power.
“Solar technology has been around for 30 years and solar financing has been here since over a decade, but the idea of combining a mortgage product and solar technology is brand new. Not everyone can afford it upfront, but it really has some unique benefits for the consumer,” he said.
With Helios co-founder and CEO Hsin Yao Cheng, Aronson set out to build the startup in February 2023. By March 2023, the duo officially launched Helios as the first of its kind solar mortgage product.
Unlike regular banks loans with captive interest rates of 35 percent to 38 percent per annum, Helios repackaged the mortgage to 6 percent to 7 percent interest rate for a minimum of 3-year tenor. Its most popular product is the refinancing scheme which lowers existing home mortgages once packaged with a solar financing product.
Strategic alliances
The fintech company managed to forge a binding partnership first with the Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI) in October 2023 and recently, with Security Bank to provide the financing package. Helios works hand in hand with both banks to bring the company closer to its goal of bringing power sustainability to the grassroots.
“We worked closely with BPI on building the product. I think the important thing for the bank is when they finance something, it has to be a good credit product. With solar, essentially the financing gets tied into the mortgage. While paying for the house, you can add on for solar and it gets bundled together and financed as one. We help consumers get more protection against utility bills, so it’s a win-win for everyone,” Aronson said.
Helios teamed up with five top solar installers in the Philippines and the best solar panel suppliers. Withy warranty of 25 years, customers are assured of almost lifetime service.
Aronson said preventive maintenance check is mandatory to avoid hitches. The company’s hotline is open 24/7 for any consumer issues.
Helios noticed good traction in solar financing for its first year in operations. First-time borrowers in their late twenties and early thirties are keen on getting the mortgage, a clear sign that millennials are aware of what green solutions can do for private gain while supporting the economy and the environment.
Aronson noted the company is also keen to serve credit-averse clients. Helios also provides battery solutions for storing power, which may require larger investment. But with batteries, consumers can be totally off-grid, even during the nights, and bring down their dependence from power distributors to zero.
“Those with excess capacities can also sell to the grid, one way of looking at how acquisition (of solar) pays for its own,” he said.
Sustainability goals
Helios, despite its nationwide reach, is a lean organization of 15 people with very ambitious goals.
“The target is to do 10,000 homes. It a very big target, and yet we still have to accelerate it. There are like 2,000 homes being built yearly in the Metro alone and that gives us a huge backlog,” Aronson said.
The company has a standing contract to sustainably light up a thousand homes in Davao, proof that Helios can serve the demand for solar financing nationwide.
Helios uses the same technology as Tesla’s in generating satellite images of roofs. The technology accurately measures the roof of a house to determine the exact installment proportions of solar panel.
Before Helios, Aronson was the general manager of credit scoring fintech company Plentina Philippines.
As an athlete, Aronson played rugby for the Philippine Volcanoes from 2012 to 2017 and led several victories and won gold in the SEA games.