Driving Climate Innovation Through Green Startups in South Asia – Nalin Agarwal, Founding Partner, Climate Collective

1. Can you provide us with a brief overview of Climate Collective and its mission to support clean energy startups in South Asia?

Climate Collective is a non-profit ecosystem builder that supports climate-tech entrepreneurship in South Asia, with a strong focus on India. At its core, we believe that addressing the climate crisis requires entrepreneurial innovation, just as much as policy and investment. As one of the few ecosystem builders for climate tech startups, we run the largest pre-Series A funding platform for climate tech startups in South Asia. We are always on the lookout for new business ideas that are tailored to the unique socio-economic fabric of the region. Since 2016, Climate Collective has built a network of programs that identify, accelerate, and scale startups working across clean energy, climate adaptation, urban resilience, etc. We want to reduce the systemic barriers that prevent climate startups from scaling. We do this by partnering with global institutions, local governments, and capital providers. Our work is rooted in long-term ecosystem development and local support that can acknowledge the fragmented but changing climate innovation landscape in South Asia.

2. In which areas of the clean energy sector do you see the most potential for growth and innovation?

When we look at clean energy from an industry perspective, three areas can be called out as particularly promising: distributed energy systems, digital energy technologies for a smarter grid, and energy access. First, battery storage is getting more affordable and dependable. We are seeing increased innovation around hybrid systems that combine solar PV with storage and intelligent demand response systems, which are critical for grid stability and resilience. Second, digitalization of energy—whether through smart metering, IoT-based energy monitoring, or AI for energy management—is creating new business models that can enable peer-to-peer energy trading. Among these, we are most optimistic about AI applications for the power sector, since they can unlock new opportunities and efficiencies through better simulation, prediction, detection, and optimization. Third, decentralized solar, particularly for agricultural and rural electrification use cases, is both technologically workable and socio-economically impactful. In the 5 years since its launch in 2019, only 2.56% of PM-KUSUM’s 10,000 MW installation target has been achieved, so we know there is a pressing need for entrepreneurial intervention. India’s market conditions, complexity of regulations, and energy diversity provide very fertile ground for such innovations. The challenge, however, remains in connecting early-stage solutions with capital and robust distribution mechanisms.

3. How do the efforts of Climate Collective in supporting clean energy startups contribute to broader climate change mitigation efforts?

Our theory of change is that supporting early-stage innovation at scale is critical for long-term decarbonization and resilience. By identifying and incubating startups that develop scalable and context-specific clean energy solutions, we accelerate the deployment of technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy inequality. In particular, our energy-specific programs include ElectronVibe, the only program in the Global South that enables electric utilities and startups to work together toward undertaking pilot projects as a precursor to larger deployment. In addition, we are developing the “AI for Power” platform, which will support utilities globally in accessing new AI innovations, as well as undertake deep research and organize regular convenings for knowledge exchange.

Our Women in Energy Entrepreneurship vertical focuses specifically on increasing women’s participation in the clean energy and energy access sectors. Through a series of targeted programs (including the Climate Ready accelerator program, the Climate Fellowship for Women in Energy, the Climate Certificate for researchers, etc.), we address key entry barriers by offering structured learning, mentorship, and practical exposure tailored to different stages of the entrepreneurial journey. An ecosystem-first approach like this also encourages cross-sector collaboration and helps climate tech ventures find synergies with adjacent sectors (such as agri-tech, mobility, and urban planning). The combined effect of these efforts is a multiplier impact on climate mitigation, and each successful startup brings a new innovative product or practice to market.

4. Could you share specific examples of startups that have thrived under the support of Climate Collective?

Since 2016, Climate Collective has supported over 1,270 climate-tech startups, a subset of which have raised a cumulative USD 235 million after graduating from our various accelerator programs. Econscious, a startup that supports circularity by recycling plastic waste, was recognized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and was one of the winners of the YouthCoLab challenge. ZeroCircle is transforming ocean-bound seaweed into biodegradable packaging and thereby offers a scalable, plastic-free alternative that tackles both marine pollution and carbon emissions. TekUncorked uses AI to enable real-time energy efficiency and grid health monitoring in industrial and utility settings, unlocking hidden savings and emissions reductions.

Village Energy is revolutionizing last-mile energy access with smart microgrids and intelligent control systems that empower local communities and enable decentralized, clean energy markets. Kazam is building the digital backbone for EV infrastructure in India through its OS platform, aggregating and optimizing charging networks to accelerate mass EV adoption seamlessly. Cancrie transforms industrial waste into advanced carbon nanomaterials for energy storage and thermal management, enabling circular manufacturing and cleaner electronics with cutting-edge tech. LivNSense leverages AI, IoT, and patented digital-twin technology to optimize energy-intensive industrial processes—delivering up to 32% carbon emission reductions and rapid ROI in sectors like cement, metals, petrochemicals, and asphalt. Our Climate Launchpad programs have also boosted revolutionary start-ups in biofuels (Jivoule Biofuels), helped develop plug-and-play biogas plants to transform organic waste into fuel and fertilizers (Vivesty Green Feritilizers,) devised a solar backup system that can convert any existing UPS system to a solar rooftop system at the lowest CAPEX cost to the customer (NyQuest Innovation Labs), and more. Each flagship startup reflects that context-aware support translates into measurable climate outcomes as well as commercial viability.

5. With your extensive experience in clean energy, how has your background influenced the organization’s strategies and initiatives?

I started on this journey back in 2007, when I decided to study sustainable energy. This was a relatively new field, and I realized this more so as I was the only person from Asia in my post-grad program at Imperial. I was drawn to both sustainable development and entrepreneurship, and that has remained central to Climate Collective’s ethos. In our work with venture development and renewable energy finance, we have seen firsthand the unique challenges climate startups face: regulatory regimes that are not uniform, underdeveloped capital markets, and a lack of incubation pathways. Such lived experiences from all of us have informed our emphasis on localization and long-term ecosystem building. We didn’t set out to run one accelerator: we sought to build a pipeline of climate innovation, beginning with emergent ideas that eventually became significant companies. The goal has always been to democratize climate innovation and to make it feasible for young entrepreneurs to take an idea to market.

6. How does Climate Collective engage with policymakers to create a supportive regulatory environment for clean energy startups?

Supporting policymakers with data on what’s happening in the climate tech startup ecosystem is an important pillar of our ecosystem approach. We are very clear that we are not a policy advocacy group, and our focus remains on supporting the startup and innovation ecosystem. We are in the process of supporting state governments by providing them with data-based insights so that they start to recognize (a) startups as a key driver of employment & economic growth within state-level green-sector policies and (b) the climate tech sector as a key driver of growth within state-level startup policies. Toward this end, we convene stakeholders from state-nodal agencies and ministries for discussion roundtables and are developing white papers to support ecosystem growth. In our research and convenings, we highlight barriers to scale such as procurement processes, tariff design, data access, etc., and work collaboratively to identify solutions. We believe that sustainable regulation is co-designed, and our role is to ensure early-stage entrepreneurs don’t get lost in the broader climate policy discourse.

7. What challenges do clean energy startups face, and how can Climate Collective help overcome them?

In the renewable energy project development space in India, there is a thriving and mature ecosystem. The outcomes are clear: globally in solar, India is 3rd in terms of generation and 5th in installed capacity; in wind, India is 6th in generation and 4th in installed capacity. However, there is much more support we need to provide for early-stage innovations to come to the market.

The most persistent challenges lie in three areas: access to early-stage risk capital, uncertainty or inconsistency around regulations, and market fragmentation. Many clean energy startups operate in asset-heavy or infrastructure-dependent models, which require significant upfront investment but can only promise returns over long time horizons. Traditional venture capital may not be comfortable with such models. Also, variation in regulations across states and sectors, as well as use cases, creates barriers to scale. Distribution and market linkage in India, in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities particularly, remains underdeveloped. Climate Collective intervenes by de-risking early-stage ventures through structured support, exposure to finance opportunities, and rigorous business modelling. We also heavily focus on providing startups with deployment opportunities with end-users, i.e., utilities and industries, by undertaking a rigorous business case development approach that considers techno-commercial, operational, and regulatory factors. And perhaps most importantly, we connect startups to peers, mentors, and market players in a way that reinforces their resilience.