Infuse Ventures sets India’s most promising Clean Tech Start-ups on road to success

Some of India’s most promising clean technology start-up enterprises and aspiring entrepreneurs were set well on their way to success after participating in PowerStart, an intensive bootcamp and accelerator programme designed specifically for India’s clean technology, renewable energy and sustainability sectors. This had been developed through a partnership between the Asian Development Bank, Infuse Ventures, and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship, Ahmedabad (CIIE). PowerStart was held from 10 to 14 November at CIIE’s premises as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, the world’s largest celebration of innovator and job creators.    

Over the five days, the 30 selected participants – all highly skilled engineers with a considerable amount of professional experience – got to meet, network, and learn from over 30 leading industry experts. Mr. VineethVijayaraghavan, Editor of Panchabuta, Mr. AshishSethia, Head of Research at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, and Mr. Amit Jain, Energy Access Specialist at the Asian Development Bank provided an overview of the opportunities in India’s renewable energy and clean technology sectors; Mr. AniruddhaPatil, Senior Investment Specialist at the Asian Development Bank, Mr. Jacob Matthew, CEO of Industree Foundation and Industree Skill Transform Pvt Ltd, Mr. JaisinghDhumal, Chief Manager of ICICI Bank’s Technology Finance Group, Mr. Ravi Tyagi, General Manager of Small industries Development at the Bank of India taught participants indispensable business skills like investor relations, design thinking, and finance management. Participants also received individual mentoring sessions in reviewing their business plans.

Powerstart concluded with all participants pitching their start-up booster ideas and plans to one another. Following the bootcamp, selected start-up teams and aspiring entrepreneurs will be provided with additional mentoring support to create and accelerate their ventures, with the view of gaining seed funding from CIIE’s venture fund for clean tech enterprises.

Powerstart was organized as a part of Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). GEW, in which 140 countries are participating, will be celebrated across 29 cities with more than 150 events across India between November 18 and 24 this year.