An endowment of $250 million from Royal Dutch Shell in 2000 helped Shell Foundation fuel over 100 entrepreneurs and organisations develop disruptive technologies and provide business solutions to myriad problems.

Traditional philanthropy has, however, gone out of the window for the Foundation, which has had to deal with numerous market failures, and has learnt to decode the `eureka moments' hidden within the failures, to help improve the chances of future success.

“Shell Foundation's journey is to focus on creating new models to address big development challenges. Access to energy is a massive challenge,” said Pradeep Pursnani, Deputy Director, Shell Foundation. “Nearly two billion people around the world, which is three in every 10, lack access to energy that is reliable and affordable,” he added.

Noting that energy is the bedrock of socio-economic development, Pursnani told Business Line , “There is a lot of research that suggests that getting the energy balance and its access right could be a way out of poverty.”

For the Foundation, identifying and learning from market failures is a given, especially since there are many hurdles preventing modern energy solutions reaching the base of the pyramid. Shell Foundation is keen to deploy a blend of financial and non financial resources to accelerate innovation, and catalyse social impact.

“Though the original endowment has grown over time, and we are on a path towards being financially independent now, most of the funding that we do (grant) comes from the endowment. As of 2014, the endowment has grown to $450 million to $470 million,” said Pursnani, also the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Foundation.

He points out that a new range of financial solutions is required for inclusive markets to grow. Almost half a century after imbibing ‘aid is the answer’ culture, the Foundation has shifted from traditional philanthropy to business-based solutions which can be replicated across the globe, he added.

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