A Generational Opportunity for India’s Climate Tech Entrepreneurs
A Generational Opportunity for India’s Climate Tech Entrepreneurs
By Nalin Agarwal and Pratap Raju
A 100% green future
India’s climate vulnerability is significant - it ranks 7th from the bottom in the world in the Climate Risk Index, and in 2019 the losses from climate change in terms of GDP were 0.72%.
Just these two data points throw bare the need for India to undertake mitigation and adaptation measures that are of an epic scale and at unprecedented speed. And, to do this equitably for the entire population - so that no one is left behind.
The good thing is that the ‘climate catastrophe’ is no longer an inevitable doomsday scenario. In preparing for a changing climate, it is clear that a zero-carbon world is a cleaner, more inclusive world, one that is more equitable and less prone to violence. It is also clear that the decarbonisation transition presents a multitude of business opportunities, most of which are open for startups to take advantage of.
To get to a 100% green future, we need lots of concerted, coordinated investments - in infrastructure, building community resilience, and most importantly, in the climate entrepreneurs of the world.
India’s Climate Tech leadership
We were pleasantly surprised a few months ago to read that two-thirds of the world’s population now lives in countries where the cost of renewable energy is the cheapest form of power generation – and India certainly falls in that category.
At COP26, India signaled its commitment to net-zero by 2070. Much has been written about what needs to be done to achieve that – and I’m confident that we can achieve it (how we can do that is a story for another article!). At this point, it is worth noting some key actions that India has taken at the national level:
India is already a leading nation in renewable energy capacity - 5th in solar (~45 GW installed), 4th in wind (~38 GW installed)
a commitment to making Indian Railways (one of the world’s largest employers) a net-zero carbon entity by 2030
a strong public transport focus
a de facto carbon tax (on oil, and one of the oldest coal taxes around), etc
When we started over a decade ago as solar developers, India was just starting out on what has become a commendable solar journey – since then, we have seen other ‘cleantech’ sectors emerge, and in the last year and a half, the momentum in India around Cleantech 2.0, or Climate Tech, has been incredible to witness and be a part of. What we see now is the rise of amazing entrepreneurs who are aligning value and profit, investors with a long-term vision for a better world, entrepreneur-support organisations with a willingness to share knowledge and networks, and governments and regulators that are more willing to adapt (albeit slowly) to a changing economy.
Which sectors in Climate Tech are set to see growth?
Over the last 5 years, we’ve accelerated over 600 Climate Tech startups in South Asia (of those, a large majority in India). Based on the pipelines we support, here are some of the Climate Tech sub-sectors with near-term growth potential in India:
Renewable energy is and has been a thrust area for India for the last decade. This will continue to grow, with new targets for renewable energy (led by solar and wind), hydro, and nuclear to hit 500GW by 2030. Even beyond this period, the business case for clean energy will become even stronger than it is now.
The other clean energy sectors that will witness strong growth include energy storage (electrochemical and thermal), energy efficiency and conservation, high-efficiency cooling, and smart grids.
Clean Mobility, led by electric vehicles (both passenger and cargo), and new business models around shared fleets and last-mile logistics
Waste-to-resources, with a strong focus on plastic waste management, is a huge opportunity as we try to solve basic problems in this space
Climate-smart agriculture and food, with startups catering to a growing demand for protein, as well as high-quality nutrient-dense food with lower carbon impact (not to mention, a huge market for animal feed which is ripe for innovation)
Hydrogen (initially Blue, and later Green) will play a key role in primary energy consumption, in addition to becoming an important industrial feedstock.
Other important Climate Tech sectors that are likely to witness growth are carbon-tech, natural resources management, clean industry, and advanced materials.
In a happy break from the past, what we’re now witnessing is an emergence of DeepTech startups especially in areas of climate-smart agriculture and mobility, as well as data-driven startups that help manage complex systems.
The challenge, and opportunity, before us
The key challenges toward net-zero for India are likely to be around balancing India's development priorities against our net-zero commitment – all the while ensuring sufficiently wide deployment of low-carbon technologies with equitable access, and the requisite and timely provision of capital to achieve said deployment.
Nothing here is a challenge not worth solving, climate crisis or not. And it would be amiss for us to not leverage a key aspect that is deeply in India’s favour – that is, our young population, if skilled and educated, can become decisive leaders and entrepreneurs in this low-carbon transition.
Today, India’s Climate Tech entrepreneurs have a generational opportunity to create a world that is cleaner (yet more efficient), more abundant (yet more equitable), and more resilient (yet more diverse). Without a doubt, this is a great time to be a climate entrepreneur in India.
We’d love to engage with the MCJ community to learn, and share more about the opportunities in India; and indeed, if you’d like to be part of the India Climate Tech story, let’s have a chat!
🎙Startup Series
This week’s guest is Tadeau Carneiro, Chairman & CEO of Boston Metal. Boston Metal has invented a coal-free, emissions-free, modular method of industrial steel production based on the use of electricity.
This episode was part of the SOSV Climate Tech Summit. The SOSV Climate Tech Summit aims to convene the climate tech startup ecosystem of founders, investors, technologists, corporates, policymakers, and media to discuss the extreme challenges ahead.
✨Highlights
Community News
🏃♂️On Deck announced a new sprint this week! Build for Climate – an 8-week build sprint for sector experts & operators who want to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in climate tech. Join a community of passionate peers, deepen your knowledge, and get accountability and structure to bring your ideas to life. More info here!
🚜The Climate Farm School program at Terra.do is back with new course dates for Spring 2022! The course runs for 4 weeks, with weeks 1, 2, and 4 all online, and the 3rd week on the farm. Hands-on work, growing and eating delicious healthy food, meals with local chefs, meaningful climate impact, generative discussions, professional development... this program has it all! Sign-ups are now open for March (Tuscany) and April (Sebastopol, CA) courses. Head to the website to apply now, and subscribe to the newsletter 'Mycelium' to receive regular program updates. Contact program director Laney Siegner with any questions: laney@terra.do.
💸Baydin (Boomerang) is offering a $50K donation to an academic lab or research organization working on new carbon capture technology. For consideration, submit a one-page memo by Dec. 10 via this link!
👨🔬Applications are Now Open for the LACI's Incubation Program: The Los Angeles CleanTech Incubator supports cleantech startups in Southern California by providing investment support, equity earn-back, industry market access & more. Develop your ideas to fight climate change. Applications due December 17th.
Climate Jobs
For more open positions, check out the #climatejobs channel in MCJ Slack.
FloodMapp is hiring a DevOps Lead
Toucan, a startup at the intersection of climate and Web3, has a number of open roles
Mars Materials, a start-up developing solutions to sequester CO2, seeks a Process Engineer II to lead the development, piloting, project engineering, and execution of Mars’ carbontech
Pano is looking to fill a Senior ML Engineer (Computer Vision)
Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) serves the public interest by effectively regulating utilities and facilities is hiring a Research Analyst
Zoomo, a leader in utility e-bikes for last-mile delivery is looking for VP Product/CPO [West Coast/Remote] to lead their product strategy and execution across both hardware and software
Yard Stick is hiring a Senior Software Engineer (remote)
Sust Global is looking for a Product Manager (US Centric/remote-friendly)
Zero Acre Farm, a venture-backed climate tech startup using engineered biology to create an alternative to oils and fats, is hiring a chief of staff
Adler & Co, a leading marketing agency focused exclusively on climate tech, is seeking a Marketing Account Manager (Contract moving to perm/full-time) (Portland or Bay Area)
Willow, a biochar company, is looking for a Director of Sales
Climate Events
For more community events, check out the #events channel in Slack or the MCJ Calendar on Luma.
🧑💻Arcadia AMA with Kiran Bhatraju (starts at 12 pm ET on 12/8) Kiran will be answering questions for 48 hours about community solar, recent Series D in September (which MCJ Collective participated in), and their new B2B platform Arc. (Please note, this is an asynchronous, Reddit-style AMA. Join the #mcj-ama channel to participate)
📳#ReFi Community Hangout (Friday 12/10 at 12 pm PT) Crypto and climate have been somewhat of an oxymoron (and fairly diametrically opposed in the eyes of many). Next Friday at 12 pm PT / 8 pm GMT we are co-hosting a Twitter Spaces with contributors from each of these three projects to explore, learn and ask questions. Join us!
📚MCJ Book Club Discussion: The Dispossessed (Thursday 12/16 at 6 pm PT/9 pm ET)
Based on the poll results our next book will be The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin! As with the last two books, we’ll break them into sections and meet every 2 weeks to discuss. RSVP here!
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