Westbridge makes debut bet in climate tech with carbon removal firm Varaha

The new capital will accelerate Varaha’s geographical expansion and strengthen its scientific, measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) The firm said it will scale a new industrial partnership model that expands its capabilities to partners around the world.

WestBridge will pump in another $25 million as part of the second tranche of its Series B round, along with Varaha’s existing investors Omnivore and RTP Global, said Sandeep Singhal, co-founder and managing partner of WestBridge Capital.

“We were looking at what was happening broadly in the climate change space and what opportunities were emerging within the thesis. We didn’t expect to find a company that was quite mature and passed all the criteria we had for our for-profit business thesis,” Singhal said. he said. Mint.

According to him, Varaha is growing rapidly and is almost profitable. “From what we’ve seen so far, the carbon credit market is about to take off. And here in India, we have a company that is among the top three in the world in this space. So it was like a happy coincidence that we found Varaha,” Singhal added.

Founded in India, Varaha develops carbon removal projects in biochar, afforestation, reforestation and vegetation (ARR); regenerative agriculture and enhanced rock weathering (ERW).

The company is a committed revenue projection (order book) It will reach $100 million in the next two to three years, almost doubling every year. After the Series B round, WestBridge will own approximately a 20% stake in the company.

Varaha has already made significant progress, registering over 283,280 hectares in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Kenya. The company works with more than 100 partners in these geographies to provide support to small farmers and plans to increase this number by 4 times in the next 12-15 months.

The company has currently awarded and sold more than 230,000 carbon credit contracts across a diversified portfolio of projects. Its customers include some of the world’s largest markets and top-tier companies in Europe, such as Klimate in Denmark, Good Carbon in Germany, Carbon Future in Switzerland; There is also intense interest from financial institutions and technology companies in the UK and US.

Profitability thesis

With this, WestBridge Capital is now investing heavily in the climate technology segment in India.

“We have no choice. We are facing a crisis of gigantic proportions. It is a crisis greater than any that humanity has ever faced. It has slowed down in the short term due to geopolitics, but activity is bursting at the seams. Everywhere I look, there is a desire on the part of various aspects of society to move towards sustainability and work against climate change,” Singhal said. Singhal explained why the company believes there can be versatile results from this segment.

According to Venture Intelligence’s data, the company, which has so far supported companies such as Meesho, Physicswallah, Rapido, Vini Cosmetics, Milky Mist, Star Health, has invested in 79 financing rounds with other investors in the last five years, providing more than $2 billion in revenue to the country.

In the last two years alone, the company has backed new-age companies like Juspay, Finfactor, SpeakX, UnifyApps, Edelweiss Asset Management, Tessel, Nexthop AI, Lucidity, FinBox, Way2News, and UptimeAI.

According to Venture Intelligence’s data, it also has an outflow of nearly $2 billion.

The firm believes there are investment opportunities in fintech, consumer and consumer technologies and SaaS AI, as well as energy transition, data centers and agricultural applications.

“We are doubling our existing businesses and expanding our ownership here,” Singhal said, adding that the firm will continue to maintain its investment pace in India.