In the first-of-its-kind public-private partnership, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad's (IIMA) Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) has joined hands with Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), BP (earlier known as British Petroleum) and Technology Development Board (TDB) to launch the Indian Fund for Sustainable Energy (INFUSE).
Minister for new and renewable energy, government of India, Dr Farooq Abdullah and chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi are expected to launch the fund on Thursday. The proposed fund, which is worth around Rs100 cr, aims to bridge the gap between energy demand and supply through sustainable entrepreneurial solutions. The official communiqué from CIIE suggests that the main aim of INFUSE is to support existing innovators and entrepreneurs to pilot and scale up their solutions through equity investment and mentoring.
INFUSE will invest up to Rs6 crore ($1.5 million) per venture. Also, it will develop entrepreneurial skills around innovative ideas and business models and seed or incubate them with incubation funds of up to Rs1 crore per venture.
The endeavour aims to bring together policy makers, academicians, corporations and developmental organisations to collaboratively incubate, build and fund new enterprises in the sustainable energy sector.
While INFUSE is supported by MNRE, TDB and BP, the fund will be coordinated and managed by IIMA's CIIE which says that several industry experts have agreed to play mentor and advisor to entrepreneurs supported by the initiative.
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