Helping Bharat accelerate decarbonisation and ensure water security.
A ₹50 Cr fund seeding tech-first climate innovation across electrified transportation, grid decarbonisation, agriculture, industry and direct carbon removal — alongside the Green Startup Pledge community.
The Challenge
A climate window that is closing fast
India, like many other nations, is grappling with an urgent need to address the climate crisis. Our country's annual contribution to global carbon emissions is projected to rise by 4.6%, and experts forecast demand for water outpacing supply by 40% by 2030. The window for meaningful intervention is narrowing, and the cost of inaction is climbing every year.
The need of the hour is to nurture and scale innovations that can move the needle on our climate goals — and help build a cleaner, greener environment for the next generation.
8.2%
Of global carbon emissions annually are contributed by India
54%
Of India is facing high to extremely high water stress
Our Thesis
Tech-first climate action — across five fronts
ACT For Environment catalyses climate action through tech-first innovations that accelerate India's progress on decarbonisation and water security. The ₹50 Cr fund seeds the capabilities of new and novel innovations with the potential to create outsized climate impact — and accelerates the progress of validated, here-and-now innovations with a measurable environmental benefit.
Electrify Transportation
Cut transport emissions by accelerating the adoption of green mobility — advanced cell chemistries, battery management and recycling, zero-emission trucks, and renewable-integrated charging infrastructure.
Decarbonise The Grid
Reduce the grid's dependence on fossil fuels and manage power more efficiently — biofuels, distributed renewable energy, renewable-efficiency solutions, energy storage and management, and virtual power plants.
Fix Agri Systems
Reduce AFOLU emissions and save water while protecting livelihoods for smallholder farmers — water-efficient irrigation, biotech fertilisers, waste-to-value solutions, food-loss avoidance and affordable precision-farming tools.
Clean Up Industry
Reduce hard-to-abate industrial emissions and enable water circularity — alternative materials, wastewater treatment and reuse, sustainable heating and cooling, circular recycling and industrial carbon capture.
Remove Carbon
Build economies of scale on direct carbon removal and storage — engineered solutions like ERW, BECCS and DAC, alongside nature-based solutions like biochar, blue-carbon restoration and algae-led carbon capture.
Our Portfolio
The founders we back in Environment
Nineteen organisations across electrified mobility, grid decarbonisation, agriculture, industry, water and carbon removal.
Agri To Power
An AI-based platform that uses satellite imagery to identify areas where crop-waste burning is prevalent — and runs a marketplace where that crop waste can be converted into clean biofuels instead.
Alt Carbon
An Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) startup with an in-house MRV system that generates high-quality removal credits by spreading basalt rock dust on agricultural land — capturing atmospheric carbon while improving soil health and lifting crop yield by 30–50%.
alt M
An alternative-materials startup transforming agricultural waste into bio-materials — including an application-led study on agri-lignin as a substitute for petrochemical-based manufacturing inputs.
Ambee
A hyperlocal environmental-intelligence platform that surfaces real-time air, weather and climate data — designed to make climate action operational for businesses, governments and researchers.
APChemi
An advanced pyrolysis solution that converts non-recyclable plastic waste into a purified oil — usable as feedstock for aviation fuel and sustainable chemicals.
Brisil
A process-tech company that converts rice-husk ash into green precipitated silica and activated carbon for industrial use.
Cancrie
A materials-tech company that uses agri-waste to create advanced nano-carbons for battery electrode plates — extending cycle life and improving energy efficiency.
Cultyvate
An affordable IoT- and AI-powered precision irrigation solution for sugarcane — helping smallholder farmers save water while boosting yield and income.
Centre For Environment Concerns
A first-of-its-kind root-zone moisture diffuser — an add-on to drip irrigation laterals — paired with a locally farm-made microbe inoculum that fosters soil health.
FIB-SOL
A biotech startup whose microbial gel-based product lifts agri-yield, improves soil quality and reduces farmer dependence on chemical fertilisers.
Farmers for Forests
A forestry startup whose Payment for Ecosystem Services model financially compensates local communities for environmental services like carbon sequestration and afforestation.
Grassroots Energy
An energy startup that uses a patented reactor design and proprietary microbial cultures to convert organic waste into green hydrogen.
Greenpod Labs
A biotech startup whose patented sachet, made of natural plant extracts, uses biomimicry to slow post-harvest over-ripening and microbial spoilage — extending the shelf life of fruits and vegetables by 40–80%.
Indra Water
An electrically-driven modular system that treats wastewater in a decentralised manner — at the point of source — for industrial and municipal customers.
REVY
A biotech startup whose specialised microbial formulation transforms agri-stubble into rich organic manure — turning a burning problem into farm input.
Minimines
A battery-recycling startup that uses an energy- and water-efficient hybrid hydrometallurgy process to recover Lithium, Cobalt, Nickel and Manganese from Li-ion battery waste.
RenewCred
A climate startup building an alternative to plastic packaging by extracting dried biomass from seaweed — producing flexible films that are fully home-compostable and marine-degradable.
Solinas Integrity
A robotics startup building a Rehabilitation Bot for end-to-end inspection and cleaning of sewer pipelines — preventing water contamination at source.
Zerocircle
A climate startup building an alternative to plastic packaging by extracting dried biomass from seaweed — producing flexible films that are fully home-compostable and marine-degradable.
Our Technical Advisors
Domain expertise behind the climate thesis
Hisham Mundol
Sandeep
Taslimarif Saiyed
Venugopal
What Are We Looking For
Building a tech-first climate solution?
If you're a social entrepreneur building a tech-first climate impact solution, we want to hear from you. Here's a quick checklist for what we evaluate.
Tech-First
Tech-led innovation should sit at the core of the product, process or business model — not bolted on at the end.
Addresses Issue At Source
Solve for the cause, not just the resulting symptom — interventions that move the needle upstream of the problem.
Evidence Of Environmental Impact
Demonstrated potential for climate impact at scale through a decarbonisation and/or water-security lens.
Roadmap To Sustainability
A clear rationale for catalytic funding and a credible path to grow sustainably beyond ACT's support.
What we typically do not fund
We do not fund the categories below — they are already in the advanced stages of market validation and have a deep pool of specialist commercial capital. We also actively screen out solutions that may contribute to greenwashing or have an indirect negative environmental impact.
- Large-scale renewable-energy projects
- EV MaaS, OEMs, financing or charging infrastructure
- Waste-management logistics and traceability
- Solutions that could contribute to greenwashing
- Innovations with indirect negative environmental impact
ACT Capital Foundation For Social Impact is a not-for-profit company incorporated and registered under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013 (CIN: U85300KA2021NPL148543). All donations made to ACT Capital Foundation are eligible for income-tax deduction under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act.
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