New Delhi: Merak Ventures, a sector-agnostic, early-stage venture capital (VC) firm, and Huddle, an accelerator-led fund for India’s early-stage ventures, launched on Tuesday ClimAct, a ClimateTech accelerator programme.
The programme aims to accelerate and fund early-stage ClimateTech startups in India working in such areas as agriculture-wastage and supply chain efficiency, mobility and transport, climate finance, carbon accounting and sequestration, and digital solutions, a media release said.
ClimAct opens applications on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. and the cohort will kick off in February 2023. The programme will run for four months, culminating in June 2023. The selected companies will gain access to an upfront Pre-Seed capital of USD 200k per startup, with the potential for a follow-on investment of up to USD 1.5million after the 4-month programme. ClimAct’s fund partners include Aavishkar Capital, Accel, Lok Capital, Matrix Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, and Stellaris Venture Partners.
“In 2021, ClimateTech funding was 5.5% of total venture funding globally, and in India the number was even lower at 1.5%. At Merak, we are intent on bridging this gap by investing in innovative tech companies that are solving real world problems. With ClimAct, we will serve as the conduit for early-stage startups to get pre-seed funds, amass value from our partner network, and ease of access to climate-focussed venture capital,” Sheetal Bahl, Partner, Merak Ventures, said.
“The climate ecosystem requires active intervention, and there’s no greater time to invest in emerging technologies that will drive the change. At Huddle, our focus is on accelerating and investing in game-changing ventures addressing critical pain points around India’s vulnerability to climate change. Through ClimAct, we look forward to helping India decarbonise and achieve its Net Zero carbon emissions target by 2070,” Ishaan Khosla, Founding Partner of Huddle, said.
India has a little over USD 1 billion invested in climate tech from 2016 to 2021, marking a severe discrepancy compared to USD 40 billion across 600 plus companies globally. With India’s ambitious target of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2070, a push for investing in ClimateTech is critical.
In addition to capital, ClimAct will support the early build and validation phase of shortlisted companies with curated access to industry veterans, an extended network for pilot opportunities and customised credits of up to $500K across technology and business functions to ensure that the focus on sustained decarbonisation of the economy gains momentum, the release added.
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