India is currently undergoing a significant energy transition, fuelled by the urgency of addressing climate change and ensuring energy security. India’s net-zero targets for 2070 and its interim climate commitments for 2030 augur a period of rapid low-carbon economic growth. While India does heavily rely on fossil fuels, it has also set up ambitious renewable energy targets, aiming to achieve 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030. This push towards renewables is a fundamental part of India's strategy to reduce its carbon footprint. India's energy landscape is characterised by diversity and complexity, with the unique imperative of balancing between environmental sustainability, energy security, and economic growth.
Within this context, climate tech ecosystems are a crucial lever in India's energy transition strategy, with the aim to facilitate innovation and business models that disrupt traditional energy systems and drive the adoption of clean technologies. India is witnessing a significant growth of climate tech startups and the facilitating environment that is emerging to support them. Despite these promising developments, the climate tech ecosystem in India is at an incipient stage and leaves much to be desired. The lack of substantial risk capital continues to remain the most persistent challenge.
This compendium is an effort to showcase some success stories from India's diverse climate tech ecosystem, providing inspiration and valuable insights to encourage the proliferation of climate tech start-ups and stimulate increased VC and Private Equity (PE) investments in this sector. It brings together perspectives from both startup founders and venture capital funds in India, operating and investing in climate technologies.
