IIM-A, MNRE and DST launch fund for start-ups in sustainable energy

In an effort to support aspiring entrepreneurs in the sustainable energy sector, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) is set to launch a fund on sustainable energy to in the sector.

Titled 'Indian Fund for Sustainable Energy (INFUSE)', the initiative to be launched on August 25 is a collaborative partnership between the private-public-academia to build sustainable energy ventures for India. The fund is partnered by IIM-A, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), British Petroleum (BP) and Technology Development board (DST).

While the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIM-A will work as the implementing agency, IIM-A would function as the nodal agency for the same. "We are planning to raise around Rs 100 crore in the next three years through more corporate participation in the fund. We would be focusing on young enterprises, start-ups and innovative business models who work with the existing renewable energy technologies. Once we have more capital, we would be able to give start-ups in this domain anything between Rs 2-2.5 crore and more as capital depending on the project. This would help fill the gap between seed funding and private equity players for an upcoming enterprise," said Rakesh Basant, chairperson of CIIE at IIM-A.

According to Basant, the scope of the initiative is to facilitate clean energy technology projects in different spaces.

"While MNRE and BP have given the initial capital for the initiative, we are now looking to approach big corporate for future funding. CIIE's role would be to manage the funds, to get experts to evaluate the project or facilitate an evaluation by a professional investment committee to see the feasibility of the project. The renewable and new energy sector is quite nascent in India so in that sense it is quite a unique effort in that direction," he added.

The Union Minister for New and Renewable energy Farooq Abdullah and the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi are slated to be present at the launch of INFUSE.