Terra.do Inc., which operates an online climate school, has raised $1.4 million (Rs 10 crore) in seed funding led by a few early-stage investment firms.
The company raised the capital from Singapore-based venture capital firm Beenext, technology-focused fund Rainmatter Capital and Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs (India), it said in a statement.
Several angel investors including Makemytrip CEO Deep Kalra, Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal and Helion Venture Partners co-founder Ashish Gupta also participated in this round.
The company offers a 12-week boot camp taught by top experts to selected individuals and then gets them to work on high-impact climate projects that use their skills, all through its online collaboration platform.
The company was launched in April this year by Ashuman Bapna, Kamal Kapadia and Mayank Jain. While Bapna was chief products office at Makemytrip prior to starting this venture, Kapadia has taught climate change at Oxford for many years. Jain, who was Bapna's IIT-Bombay batch mate, worked for software engineering firm Atishae Web Pvt. Ltd.
"Climate change is such a wicked problem because the problems and solutions are so deeply interconnected. That’s why we were keen to get investors on board that reflected that diversity of experience, geography and mindset," Bapna said.
The platform has graduated its first cohort. This cohort included a partner at the world’s largest technology accelerator, former Google employees, an investigative journalist in India, and several other people.
Nithin Kamath, founder of brokerage firm Zerodha-backed Rainmatter Capital, said the firm would like to collaborate with various technology partners who are looking to make a difference in the climate change ecosystem.
The broader digital education segment in India has been in the thick of dealmaking activities in the recent past.
The most heavily-funded startup is Byju's, which is part of the unicorn club of startups to be valued at $1 billion or more. Last week, it bought WhiteHat Jr, a startup focusing on coding for school students, for $300 million.
In July, Vedantu Innovation Pvt. Ltd raised $100 million (Rs 752 crore at current exchange rates) in a Series D funding round led by US-based investment firm Coatue Management.
Earlier that month, Lightbox Ventures led a $7.2 million (around Rs 53 crore) pre-Series B funding round in Flinto.
