Climate finance is the biggest opportunity of our times: Climake's Simmi Sareen

(From left) Simmi Sareen and Shravan Shankar Image: Neha Mithbawkar for Forbes India

Multiple venture capital (VC) firms are consciously funding startups that are addressing climate change concerns, and devising solutions for a clean and sustainable world. Read about them here.

First, Climake is not a VC firm. It is a young organisation that offers a growth platform for climate tech startups to access markets and access equity and non-dilutive capital.

 

Shravan Shankar, who has a deep interest in sustainable development and related tech and entrepreneurship, and Simmi Sareen, a director at impact investment firm Unitus Capital, founded Climake in the middle of the Covid pandemic.

Shankar started working in sustainable development straight out of college over 12 years ago.

A key motivating factor was the “transformational change needed to move the needle towards climate action, net zero and a more sustainable world was only going to come from adopting radical newer innovations”, he says.  Sareen brings deep experience in helping impact-focussed ventures raise money, as one part of her work as a director at Unitus Capital.

 Since its inception, Climake has helped some 50 climate tech- and sustainability-focussed startups source $30 million in debt financing and more than $30 million in equity investment. It has also helped 15 B2B climate tech startups find long-term customers and provided venture advisory to over 100 startups.

 The duo is helping financiers with their report on the state of climate finance in India, which is into its second edition this year. “We know climate change is the biggest crisis of our times. What we want to establish is that climate finance is also the biggest opportunity of our times,” Sareen says.