Millions of people in India lack access to the reliable and affordable energy they need to live healthy and productive lives. For vulnerable and rural poor communities, this inaccessibility is a major impediment to rising out of poverty. Sustainable energy has the potential to change that, by boosting incomes and increasing the climate resilience of farmers and their families. 

To close this gap, Acumen Academy launched the Energy for Livelihoods Accelerator, which spun out of Acumen’s Pioneer Energy Investment Initiative (PEII+) launched in 2022, and aims to build an ecosystem of scalable social enterprises in India committed to improving the livelihoods of people in poverty using sustainable energy. 

In partnership with Apple, the four-month accelerator program supported 15 social enterprises as they developed and refined their business models — leveraging lessons from Acumen’s 16+ years of experience working alongside social entrepreneurs in the energy sector. 

Energy For Livelihoods Accelerator- India

The cohort’s innovative business models span sustainable cooling technologies, solar and hydroelectric technology for local communities, electric vehicle implementation, and other technologies that maximize energy’s potential to improve livelihoods.  

Below, participants share how the Energy for Livelihoods Accelerator helped them overcome early-stage challenges, and are coming out of the program having created meaningful collaborations and new opportunities to increase visibility for funding, mentorship, and much more. 

“I joined the Acumen Accelerator program because I heard from the Acumen community and the Acumen Fellows that there was a lot of focus given to the founder apart from the company, and I wanted to improve myself on certain aspects like leadership [and] communication,” says Ashwini Vikas, founder of Suryanirbhar Agritech LLP.

According to Tushar Devidayal, founder of Devidayal Solar, “There are a number of unique challenges for productive use of energy companies, affordability and end user financing are big ones, but aggregation of demand to scale is another big one. The accelerator has helped me with running an experiment to test our hypothesis, and our mentors are also helping us with [developing] a clustering approach.” Aumsat Technologies LLP

The accelerator covered topics such as customer validation, marketing funnels, and business model design, with a sector-specific lesson on How Pricing Models Can Make Energy Products More Attainable for Low-Income Customers. 

“India is a very cost-sensitive market. If your technology is not affordable, if your unit economics don’t make sense, if your value propositions are not very clear or cost-based, then it’s very difficult to scale your business […]. You need good collaborations with people in your industry, financial options, and charging infrastructure. So it’s about how you can leverage the market, find those connections, and make all that fruitful. That’s what we’ve learned from being part of this cohort,” says Dharmik Bapodara, founder of Yotuh Energy.

According to Runjesh Bargal, founder of Vanya Technologies, “My fellow cohort members have shaped my experience in a number of ways. They have provided me with valuable feedback on my business model, and they have helped me to connect with potential partners and customers. They have also been a great source of support and encouragement.”

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For Tushar Devidayal, founder of Devidayal Solar Solutions, synergies across the cohort came to life when he, Dharmik Bapodara (Yotuh Energy), Srinivas Marella (Coolcrop), and Nikky Kumar Jha (Saptkrishi Scientific Private Limited) discussed possible future collaborations as a consortium. 

“That’s progress — we’ve all come together and we’re thinking about the same problem. And we’re doing it at different scales and at different points in the value chain so it’s really complimentary.”

The program concludes with a final showcase where participants are given a platform to network and the opportunity to pitch their businesses and engage in conversation with stakeholders across the energy sector. But completion of the program is only the start of their journey with Acumen. 

Upon graduating, participants join the Foundry — Acumen Academy’s global community of 1600+ social innovators who are scaling solutions to poverty around the world. As Foundry members, they gain access to learning resources, expert mentorship, and opportunities to pitch for early-stage capital through Acumen Angels. 

“With my own cohort members, I learned so much. So I'm really looking forward to being a part of the global Foundry, where I hope that we will be able to expand this more with a global perspective as well, and get to learn from each other who are doing similar works across geographies,” says Jai Bharathi, founder of Mowo Fleet.

Reflecting on his entry into the Foundry, Upamanyu Ghosh, founder of BluPower, says “Collaboration is very important at an early stage -— social capital is more important to grow than you know. [...] The reason I'm excited to graduate into the Foundry is because it's a collection of more than 1,000 Fellows from Acumen, so that gives access to an intangible and non-quantifiable amount of resources.” 

The Energy for Livelihoods Accelerator will expand to East Africa to support social entrepreneurs with similar missions in the region, with applications open February through March 2024. The expansion is part of Acumen’s plan and commitment to cultivate and grow an ecosystem of emerging locally-led energy and agricultural entrepreneurs who are improving livelihoods using sustainable energy.