Infuse Ventures raises INR 110 crores to support ventures across cleantech sector

It’s a golden day for the sustainability and clean energy startups in India. IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) announced that Infuse Ventures – its cleantech focused ecosystem and fund has raised over INR 110 crores which is INR 35 crore more than the original plan of raising INR 75 crores.

While early stage companies in India continue to have limited access to institutional capital, Infuse is helping with much needed capital to early stage cleantech companies, mobilise global and domestic investors, and enable adoption of best practices in corporate governance and environmental and social sustainability standards.

Infuse supports seed and early stage enterprises developing new business models across the renewable energy, resource efficiency, waste, water and other sustainability-related areas. Apart from providing financial support, Infuse has been actively engaging with aspiring entrepreneurs to provide mentoring and networking support. In recent past, Infuse has partnered with Asian Development Bank, IIT Mumbai and TiE Chennai to guide aspiring cleantech entrepreneurs in India. Partners including Godrej Industries, ICICI Bank, SIDBI, Bank of India and Union Bank have joined Infuse ever since.

“We are delighted to have complementary and like-minded partners join us in our effort to build a stronger entrepreneurial ecosystem for supporting cleantech entrepreneurs in India”, said Professor Ashish Nanda, Director, IIM Ahmedabad. “As a partnership between a business incubator, domestic and global corporates, domestic and international financial institutions and Government of India, Infuse is uniquely poised to support aspiring entrepreneurs working towards creating sustainable solutions for Indian problems”, added Professor Nanda.

Infuse had announced its initial closing in May 2013 with committed support from BP, International Financial Corporation (IFC) and Government of India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Technology Development Board (TDB).

Along with the closing, Infuse also announced its investments in early stage enterprises across the sustainability spectrum. Size of investment varies from INR 1 crore to 3 crore in these startups . Earlier, Infuse had announced its co-investment with IFC in Ecolibrium Energy, an energy management startup.

Here are the details of the recent investee companies:

REConnect Energy: Founded by Vibhav Nuwal and Vishal Pandya, the company is into renewable energy credits trading along with offering strategy and support services in the wind power forecasting, electricity trading and energy efficiency markets serving over 200 customers across the country.

Surya Power Magic: Founded by Abhilash Thirupathy and Karthik Ravindranath, Surya Power Magic offers efficient solar-based irrigation solutions for farmers.

Tessol : Founded by Rajat Gupta and Rustom Irani, Tessol provides thermal-energy storage solutions primarily focused on the cold chain segment.

Revive Electronic Waste: Founded by Siddarth Shivkumar and Samiul Haque, the company provides an energy efficient, modular and a decentralized end to end ewaste management service.

This step will definitely give a boost to the overall cleantech sector and encourage much needed innovations across this space.

What impact this news will have on the sector? Let us know your opinion.