Q1: Peak Sustainability Ventures has developed a distinctive climate investment thesis. How does your approach differ from the broader ecosystem, and what unique insights have shaped your strategy across different climate sub-sectors?

Peak Sustainability Ventures was one of the earliest climate venture capital firms (VC’s) to launch in India. I think our approach differs from others in this field in India, mainly because we have been involved in this space for over a decade and have seen multiple market cycles. We have developed a unique investment strategy, portfolio and network to build the next generation of large-scale sustainability companies. We are not interested in making marginal progress in sustainability – it must be game-changing.

I have been investing in sustainability since 2009 and have seen the immense growth of sustainability as an investment theme. We now have two publicly listed, multi-billion dollar companies in our track record - VA Tech Wabag, which is now one of the largest water companies in the world - and Waaree Energies - which is one of India’s largest solar panel manufacturers, along with several exits and mark-ups. This appreciation for not only seeing markets evolve but also understanding how they may evolve in the future, ahead of the curve, has played a critical role in shaping Peak’s investment strategy.

We are a thesis-driven fund. We understand that sustainability is an extremely complex space, with multiple moving parts and interconnected sectors. We dive deep into specific verticals within sustainability to form a robust, scientific understanding of the macros, technologies, inherent issues, future potential, and a clear idea of the VC play. We have 25 internal sub-sector theses across a range of areas such as Hydrogen, Green Steel, Water, Energy Storage, Alternative Materials and Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS), which helps our team analyze companies effectively. It’s important to update our views over time because these sectors are consistently evolving.

Lastly, we are truly passionate about sustainability. We recognize that certain technologies may be further along globally, and we want to leverage this fact. Our strategy is to identify best-in-class climate technologies wherever they may originate and scale them in India at India’s price points. We have built a strong presence globally and have co-invested with a number of global climate funds. We want to accelerate India’s progress in achieving its climate goals, and play an active role in scaling domestic companies globally, and global companies within India.

Q2: Peak Ventures has a deep sector focus on hydrogen. Could you share insights from your investment experience—any specific enterprises, breakthroughs, or case studies that highlight the opportunities and challenges in this space?

Hydrogen represents a critical pathway for India’s decarbonization journey, particularly in challenging sectors like steel production, refining, fertilizers, and long-haul transportation—areas where traditional renewable energy solutions alone can’t deliver the emissions cuts we urgently need. At Peak Sustainability Ventures, we’ve approached hydrogen investments with a clear understanding of both its immense potential and its substantial current challenges.

A standout example from our portfolio is Hydrogen Mem-Tech (HMT), a Norway-based hydrogen technology company that is able to extract high-purity hydrogen from mixed gas streams with a high recovery factor and purity level. This can also be thought of as “hydrogen efficiency”, as the membrane allows a recovery of 5 to 7 percent additional hydrogen than traditional technologies in Water Gas Shift reaction, and is directly applicable to the oil and gas, ammonia and steel sectors. We had evaluated over 75 hydrogen companies globally prior to making this investment, and built the relationship over a year with the company before committing capital. We are co-invested alongside AP Ventures, Aramco Ventures and Yara Growth Ventures, amongst others.

While green hydrogen is extensively discussed in India, costs remain high resulting in fewer projects getting executed. Achieving commercial viability still requires coordinated support from policy, infrastructure investment, and technology breakthroughs.

In the long run, hydrogen’s role is undeniable, but reaching a tipping point requires investments that address both short-term efficiency and longer-term green hydrogen production. At Peak, our investment strategy consistently balances multiple realities—supporting solutions that deliver immediate, measurable impact today while also preparing the ground for a fully sustainable future.

Q3: Water scarcity is an increasingly pressing issue that is often overshadowed by energy in climate discussions despite its increasing urgency. How do you view the significance of this sector? What are the most promising water solutions that Peak Ventures has backed, and what innovations do you see shaping the future of water sustainability?

Water is our most precious resource. Plain and simple. Many people simply cannot fathom what it means to not have access to clean water. If we did, I think things would look very different.

India is facing a critical water challenge today, across both water availability and water quality. 21 cities in India are expected to run out of water by 2030. India has 18% of the world’s population, yet only 4% of groundwater resources, which are being depleted at an accelerated pace. India’s Agriculture sector uses 70% of our groundwater reserves. All these data points paint a challenging picture for India over next decade.

At Peak Sustainability Ventures, we’ve long recognized water as a core, existential issue. Unlike energy-focused solutions, water technologies are not focusing on greenhouse gas emissions - they are focused on addressing fundamental water issues. Water is an inherently local resource, requiring deep context-specific interventions at community, regional, and national levels. Addressing water scarcity involves complexities of governance, local ecosystems, community behavior, regulation, and technical infrastructure, all intertwined in ways that require nuanced understanding and careful implementation.

Water is one of Peak’s four core investment areas, and we have explored this sector deeply. Our first investment at Peak was in Indra Water, a wastewater treatment technology company, providing modular, capex-light water treatment systems for mid-size corporates to re-use or safely dispose of water. Indra is now working with marquee customers including Unilever, Taj Hotels, ITC and Xylem. We had previously invested in Drinkwell, a water technology company that uses resin based filters to remove arsenic and fluoride from groundwater. Drinkwell’s systems provide safe drinking water to bottom-of-the-pyramid communities in West Bengal and Bangladesh, and provided 407M liters of safe drinking water in Dhaka in one year. VA Tech Wabag, as mentioned, was our first sustainability investment, and is now one of the fifth largest water companies in the world - a true multinational company built in India in the water space.

These water companies, amongst many others in the ecosystem outside of our portfolio, have not only demonstrated strong customer traction and large-scale impact, but also fundraising success. Subsequent to our investment in Indra Water, Emerald Ventures, a Singapore-based water VC fund, invested in the company. After our investment in Drinkwell, TPG Rise Fund, Global Innovation Fund, and Danone Communities entered the company. Global investment firms are beginning to take notice of this space, and we anticipate this trend to continue over time.

We have also launched new initiatives in the water vertical. We have announced the Blue Seed Initiative with VA Tech Wabag, wherein we are aiming to co-invest in water technology companies together. VA Tech Wabag will also look to pilot these technologies on their wastewater treatment plants and desalination plants. We are attempting to bring water into the discussion when we attend forums, speak on panels, and do interviews such as these.

We believe there is a significant challenge, and consequently, a significant opportunity in the water sector. This is a very large problem that will require government, private capital allocators, corporates and entrepreneurs to work together to address them at scale.

Q4: How do you see the opportunities in sustainability going forward? What does the future of climate investing look like, in the eyes of Peak Sustainability Ventures?

In our view, energy will remain a dominant theme. It also forms a core part of our fund. Energy is the deepest vertical, and is also the most critical part of the sustainability landscape. Energy includes everything from alternative fuels, energy storage, energy efficiency, cooling, waste-to-energy, grid efficiency and a lot more.

Other emerging areas will likely play an important role, especially as we begin to think more holistically about sustainability. I like to say that “we must go beyond Net Zero”, because sustainability is about a lot more than just greenhouse gas emissions. Areas such as biodiversity, plastics, food systems, cooling, building materials and others will likely become more dominant as more attention is focused on this space.

Our view is that all these sectors are interconnected. It’s important to think about life-cycle implications, second-order effects, and long-term consequences when evaluating climate solutions. In a closed system with finite resources, almost all solutions have multiple impacts on different sectors.

Another important consideration is to start with the problem first. Not all sustainability problems will be addressed through early-stage venture capital. Different vehicles and different forms of capital will be needed to address large sustainability challenges. Sometimes, infrastructure capital, growth capital, blended finance and other pools of capital are more appropriate, depending on the issue at hand. We expect to see the climate investment landscape mature over time, such that we have deep resources to address all types of climate issues.

In short, we are extremely excited about the opportunity before us. We believe we’re just in the beginning stages of the growth of this space, and we are looking forward to participating in the journey. We welcome more investors and entrepreneurs to participate in this space alongside us.

Background of Peak Sustainability Ventures

Peak Sustainability Ventures is a global early-stage climate investment firm, based in India. The firm’s core vision is to address large, complex sustainability issues with innovative, scalable solutions. Peak invests in best-in-class climate technologies, and scales them in India, across four key pillars: New Energy, Food Systems, Water and a broader Climate bucket. Peak employs a thesis-driven investment strategy and builds core domain expertise in its key sectors to identify compelling opportunities. The firm is looking to build an institutional bridge between India and the world, to accelerate India’s transition to a sustainable economy.