SELCO’s founder, Harish Hande two-time winner of an Ashen Award, received prominence this week in Forbes India for his recent work setting up a fund that will stimulate new Indian clean energy businesses.

The article profiles the barriers that SELCO faced when investors weren’t tuned to their needs as a social enterprise. As a result of this experience, Harish decided to set up a specialised fund in partnership with SELCO’s Head of Finance K. Revathi and COO Ashis Kumar Sahu. The aim of the fund, with its first million dollars already secured from Halloran Philanthropies, is to provide support for sustainable energy enterprises at the crucial start-up phase before they are ready for commercial investment.

The first round of five companies will receive their investment in February 2012.