MUMBAI: YES Bank, one of India’s largest private sector lenders, is in the process of selecting 3-10 green energy start-ups that it will mentor and scale up through its new Cleantech Accelerator platform launched in association with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).
The select start-ups will get access to mentorship, scaling up and funding of up to $1 million per start-up.
‘Cleantech application’
“We have a database of 500-600 start-ups. We are filtering it to find specific cleantech companies or those having a cleantech application. For example, if we think of smart metering, it could have data analytics at the backend,” Amit Shah, Country Head, Corporate Strategy, YES Bank, told BusinessLine. YES Bank will also provide a grant of maximum ₹20 lakh per start-up for pilot or proof of concept at the client cite.
“A lot of strips fail because they don’t have enough funds to do proof of concept,” Shah said.
Tie-ups for testing
The solutions developed by start-ups selected for Cleantech Accelerator will be tested in the real environment by YES Bank’s exiting clients — renewable companies keen on adopting innovations to improve their operations or products, Shah added.
YES Bank has partnered with several renewable industry players, including the US-based PV modules manufacturer First Solar, Hyderabad-based solar developer Freyr Energy and Grasim, a part of Aditya Birla Group, for this programme.
Source: thehindubusinessline
