The climate problem is a vast one, which cuts across multiple sectors. In previous decades, common discourse has referred to energy transition as the core tenet of climate. This included distributed renewable energy; grid infrastructure improvement and automation; and energy storage applications such as batteries. However, in the 2020s, there has been an acceptance that the climate problem is so complex and long term, that it in fact solutions need to address decarbonization across all sectors, such as mobility, buildings, industry, agriculture, biofuels, waste, advanced materials and circular economy.

In particular, the bulk of the mitigation of carbon emissions will come from deep tech solutions, which essentially use hardware, manufacturing and cutting-edge science innovation to create robust, sophisticated and durable technologies aimed at large-scale decarbonization. Examples include electrolysers for green hydrogen production, alternative battery chemistries, carbon capture solutions and more. For R&D climate innovation to really flourish in India, there needs to be a strong base of academic universities where students are given lab space, equipment, and other resources to conduct product and prototype testing. These can function as breeding grounds for dedicated deep science incubators for the climate tech sector, which in parallel, create the relevant linkages both to industry and policy stakeholders.

Additional ingredients which would be required for India to become a global deep tech climate hub that rivals developed economies such as the United States, Germany and Israel include: i) strong entrepreneurial ecosystem and deep science talent; ii) corporations that are leading the charge on sustainability and eager to integrate next-generation technologies to enable a clean energy economy; and iii) risk capital in the form of philanthropic grants from private foundations or government schemes, to fund prototype creation and product testing.

As a subset of the deeptech climate sectors, material innovation is an interesting one to dive deep into, which traditionally has not seen as much development in India as yet, but has high potential for scale, given India’s access to wide-scale natural resources. In material science, the core objective is to utilize renewable or natural feedstocks to replace fossil fuel or oil-based, synthetic raw materials. These feedstocks can include agricultural waste (paddy straw, cellulose, hemp, mushrooms, soy, sugar cane, wheat); marine (seaweed, algae) and forestry (wood pulp and other soil composites). The end products tend to focused on developing biopolymers, which are essentially biodegradable alternatives to plastics, can be reinforced with fillers which give then equivalent functional qualities to their synthetic counterparts, such as durability, chemical resistance and longevity. These biopolymers tend to be utilized in packaging, cosmetics and medicine. The adjacent field of green chemistry is comprised of protein-based micro and nano capsules which replace their synthetic alternatives in the FMCG industry - nutraceuticals, herbal extracts and other cosmetic applications, as well as industrial and specialty chemicals. Moreover, advanced materials with proprietary process innovations can be applied to textiles and to green building materials, in turn creating upcycled products which are high performance and carbon negative.

At Theia Ventures, our thesis is that IP-led early stage innovations, where technologies are defensible and addressing a large market opportunity, are key to cutting carbon emissions and achieving climate resilience. We are particularly excited about the adoption of advanced materials as one of the important areas within deep tech, as a sector which replaces carbon- intensive raw materials and thereby plays a significant role in achieving sustainability goals.

About Priya
Priya is the General Partner of Theia Ventures. Before Theia Ventures, Priya has spent 15 years working across the social impact, finance and policy sectors in the US, UK and Indian markets. Before Theia Ventures, she built as part of the founding team, the Indian Fund arm of Yunus Social Business (YSB), a global venture debt fund founded by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus. Prior to YSB, Priya spearheaded strategy, capital raising and special projects at a clean-tech, venture-backed, growth-stage company, Simpa Networks. Priya started her career at Bloomberg LP in New York and later at Asia House in London, and has led several independent consulting projects at impact start-ups and advisory firms, such as Acumen and CDC group. She holds an MBA from Cambridge Judge Business School and a BA in History from Brown University.

About Theia Ventures
Theia Ventures is a seed stage fund in India investing in high impact, technology-enabled climate tech businesses operating across multiple sectors, such as energy efficiency, electric mobility, renewable energy access, biofuel/biogas, energy storage carbon capture, battery tech, waste-to-value, smart protein and sustainable agriculture. Theia takes an active role in their portfolio companies, providing mentorship and value-added support across strategy, governance, product and fundraising, connecting them to their Venture Partner Network and other ecosystem partners.