Bengaluru-based climate tech startup Climes, on Tuesday said it has secured $1.2 million (around Rs 9.4 crore) in a funding round from Sequoia Capital India, Kalaari Capital, Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath and Avaana Capital.
The round also saw participation from investors including Satyen Kothari (Cube Wealth) and Anshuman Bapna (Terra.do) from Stanford Angels, Keshav Reddy (Reddy Futures), Arjun Gupta (Smart Joules) and Akshay Singhal (Log9 Materials), among others.
The platform plans to use the fresh capital to deploy more integration with brands in fashion, food, travel, beauty and personal care and expand its tech stack for climate solutions within India.
Founded by Anirudh Gupta (ex-Airbus) and Siddhanth Jayaram (ex-Kalaari Capital), Climes claims to unlock an untapped source of capital amid an urgent need to finance climate action.
“With this capital raise, Climes is building a digital infrastructure for this money to flow into designing the right incentives for all market players to benefit. The delta of the capital that flows through Climes will have an outsized multiplier impact on global carbon mitigation,” said co-founders, Gupta and Jayaram.
Indian climate tech firms have received $1 billion in venture capital funding from 2016 to 2021, a report released by London & Partners and Dealroom.co said ahead of the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference.
In fact, India ranks ninth in the list of top ten countries for climate tech investments since 2016, when the Paris Agreement was signed.
“The rising awareness of the need for a carbon-neutral lifestyle and climate costs require urgent new solutions. Entrepreneurs offering solutions with climate-sensitiveness can create key differentiating propositions. Climes founders have goals to bring climate awareness and action and the solutions by the company make it possible for brands to embark on that transition by allowing customers to carbon-neutralize every transaction,” said Vani Kola, managing director, Kalaari Capital.