Bangalore: International Finance Corporation (IFC), a World Bank Group, plans to invest upto $5 million in INFUSE Capital, a substantial energy and cleantech focused incubation and early stage fund aimed at seeding and supporting scalable ventures in India through equity investment upto $1.5 million per venture.

Founded by Kunal Upadhyay, INFUSE Capital is housed at IIM- Ahmedabad’s business incubator- the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) and is currently backed by BP Ventures and Government of India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Technology Development Board.

Upadhyay brings several years of incubation, investment, entrepreneurial and consulting experience. He is leading incubation of and investment in over 25 early stage ventures across the technology sectors, including a dozen focused on the cleantech sector. Prior to this, Upadhyay was the co-founder at Sarvajal-a cleantech enterprise targeting the drinking water sector. He holds an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and B.Tech from IIT Madras and has strategic and operational consulting experience across Citigroup and American Express.

INFUSE aims to raise a $25 million fund that will invest in technology and business model innovation based entrepreneurial solutions across the cleantech vertical. The company will bridge the early-stage equity gap in this sector and simultaneously build an enabling ecosystem for eco-ventures in India.

IFC has plans to invest in some other Indian companies like Banyan Tree II, Kalkitech, Doshion, Nereus Fund, and several others.