

Westbridge makes debut bet in climate tech with carbon removal firm Varaha
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. WestBridge Capital, a US- and India-focused early-to-growth-stage investment firm, is betting big on climate tech to become a large, for-profit opportunity for investors in the coming decade. The firm has backed Gurugram-based Varaha, a developer of high-integrity carbon removal projects, and led the $20 million Series B funding round.
The new capital will accelerate Varaha’s geographic expansion, strengthen its scientific and measurement, reporting and verification (MRV)capabilities, and scale a new industrial partnership model that extends its capabilities to partners worldwide, the firm said. WestBridge, along with Varaha’s existing investors Omnivore and RTP Global, will also pump in another $25 million as part of the second tranche of the Series B round, Sandeep Singhal, co-founder and managing partner at WestBridge Capital, said. “We have been looking at what's happening in the broad climate change area and what kind of opportunities come under the thesis.
We were not expecting to find a company that is pretty mature and passing all the markers that we have for our for-profit business thesis," Singhal said in an interview with Mint. According to him, Varaha is growing explosively and is near profitable. “From what we have seen so far, the carbon credit market is about to take off.
And here we have, in India, a company that ranks among the top three in the world in that space. So it was like a happy serendipity that we found Varaha," Singhal added. Founded in India, Varaha develops carbon removal projects across biochar, afforestation, reforestation and revegetation (ARR); regenerative agriculture, and enhanced rock weathering (ERW).
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