Comments
Indian Institute of Management– Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) on Wednesday announced that it had received commitments of over ₹110 crore for its cleantech focused fund, Infuse Ventures.
Initially, four startups from different parts of the country will be supported by Infuse Ventures in the field of cleantech segment.
“The startups require piloting support at the initial stage. We have been able to bring global partners to support these entrepreneurs. This would benefit entrepreneurs in getting global expertise and finance and a right ecosystem to grow,” said Kunal Upadhyay, Chief Executive, CIIE.
Infuse had announced its initial closing in May 2013 with committed support from global energy major BP, International Financial Corporation (IFC) and Government of India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Technology Development Board (TDB). Over the past one year, additional partners including Godrej Industries, ICICI Bank, SIDBI, Bank of India and Union Bank have emerged.
So far, Infuse has disbursed ₹15 crore among the startups. Earlier, Infuse had announced its co-investment with IFC in Ecolibrium Energy, an energy management startup in Ahmedabad.
“The cleantech industry is relatively new and at its initial stage. The potential is huge, probably even bigger than the internet industry. The cleantech industry require multi disciplinary expertise, hence Infuse is able to rope in global expertise for the start-ups,” said Anil Paranjape of Infuse Capital.
In recent past, Infuse has partnered with Asian Development Bank, IIT Mumbai and TiE Chennai to guide aspiring cleantech entrepreneurs in India.
“More than finance what is important to us is ecosystem, where we can grow in right direction. That is how we can differentiate Infuse Venture with other VC funds,” said Vishal Pandya, director, REConnect Energy, a Bangalore-based startup which is engaged in the renewable energy credits trading.
Along with the closing, Infuse also announced its investments in early stage enterprises across the sustainability spectrum including REConnect Energy Solutions, Surya Power Magic, Revive Electronic Waste and Tessol.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.