ADB, Infuse Ventures and CIIE Launch ‘PowerStart’ to nurture cleantech startups in India
IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) has joined hands with the Asian Development Bank to launch PowerStart to strengthen the cleantech entrepreneurship ecosystem and build technical and business capacity in cleantech entrepreneurs, and providing more access to early stage funding.
About PowerStart
PowerStart is an intensive bootcamp and accelerator programme for early stage start-ups as well as individuals keen on building a cleantech venture from scratch – and aims at providing business, technology, policy and financial support to new ideas and enterprises. PowerStart leverages the strong network and experience of its partners – Asian Development Bank, Infuse Ventures and IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) – to help build a conducive ecosystem for cleantech entrepreneurship in India. Infuse Ventures is a unique fund and ecosystem backed by the Government of India, BP, IFC and other domestic investors. ADB support for the programme is being provided through their Climate Technology Finance Centre (CTFC) project.
Early stage ventures and individuals keen on accelerating their ideas can access the application forms through our website (www.infuseventures.in) and will get access to 4-days of rigorous mentoring at IIM Ahmedabad. During this 4-day bootcamp, the ventures will get to interact with all relevant stakeholders of the ecosystem – including policy-makers, successful entrepreneurs, investors, among others. Subsequently the entrepreneurs will also be provided with 3-4 months of active acceleration support from mentors in the Infuse ecosystem. All travel and lodging expenses of participants during the bootcamp will be borne by ADB and Infuse.
The selected ventures would also be considered for investment between Rs 25 lacs – Rs 5 crores by Infuse Ventures, based on the stage and needs of each venture.
CIIE and Infuse Ventures have been playing an active role in the cleantech entrepreneurship sector and have already supported several aspiring cleantech entrepreneurs through their past initiatives. CIIE’s portfolio ventures in the space include Ecolibrium Energy (renewable integration and energy optimization), Visviva Renewables (biomass supply chain), Wifinity (energy management), Onergy (rural lighting), GreenwayGrameen (efficient cookstoves) among many others.
“Apart from supporting existing start-ups, our focus is on co-creating capital-efficient cleantech ventures from scratch. We invite individuals with relevant expertise in areas like information technology, analytics, supply chains and financing to work closely with us, leverage our networks and ideas and co-create scalable ventures”, said KunalUpadhyay, CEO, Infuse Ventures.
“We believe that PowerStart can provide the necessary impetus to cleantech entrepreneurs by equipping them with funding, networks and knowledge. Also, there are several untapped opportunities in the cleantech sector which PowerStart entrepreneurs can explore while their engagement with us. We are specially excited about the possibilities of creating internet-enabled cleantech ventures and invite aspiring IT entrepreneurs to apply as well”, added Kunal Upadhyay.
The last date for applying to be a part of the PowerStart is 19th October 2013.
Timeline (2013-2014)
- 19October – close of online applicationsStart-up Track application form on F6S: www.f6s.com/powerstart
- Aspiring Entrepreneurs Track SOP form: here
- October 4thweek – announcement of finalists for the boot camp at IIM Ahmedabad
- 11 to 14 November – 4-day long PowerStart Bootcamp at IIM Ahmedabad
- 15 November 2013 to mid-March 2014 – EIR Programme & Acceleration support
- Late March 2014 – Pitching to Infuse for seed investment
About INFUSE
Infuse Ventures is an India-focused early stage venture capital fund set up and managed by CIIE. Set up through a unique public-private-academia collaboration, our partners include IIM Ahmedabad, Govt. of India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Technology Development Board, BP Ventures, and International Financial Corporation, among others. Read more atwww.infuseventures.in. More information about CIIE can be found atwww.ciieindia.org.