IndusDC, a Venture Studio from India with a mission to cut down 1GT of CO2 emissions by 2035, earmarks Rs 100 crore (USD 12 mm) for FY25 and 26 to identify and co-build hard tech startups in India.
IndusDC will identify opportunities and support hard tech innovations primarily across the Industrial and Energy sectors, which contribute to more than 70 per cent of global CO2 emissions. The studio aims to build 5 startups in the next two years and more than 50 globally over the next decade.
Each startup founded by IndusDC will have access to Rs 20 crore (USD 2.4mm) in capital as a combination of grants for tech development, equity for early revenue till profitability, and debt / working capital for scaling beyond profitability. This first-of-its-kind blended finance model enables hard-tech startups to focus on building value minimising the need for continuous equity capital raise. The studio has already received a commitment agreement for the first five startups from Mirik Gogri of Spectrum Impact - Family office of Aarti Industries' promoters. IndusDC is also backed by successful entrepreneurs and angel investors, including Ashish Gupta of Helion Venture Partners and Sri Myneni of Knoah solutions. The studio will be signing additional commitment agreements with strategic investors for grants, equity and debt over the course of FY25.
Founded in 2023, IndusDC is driven by serial entrepreneur and alumni of IIT Madras and USC - Kushant Uppal, Prof Satyanarayanan Seshadri – a professor at IIT Madras and founder of the energy consortium and Kaustubh Hanmantgad – an expert in behavior analytics and building teams. The well-rounded founding team comes with deep expertise in identifying IP, building high quality teams and scaling hard-tech ventures in decarbonisation.
The studio will act as co-founders and work closely with its Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIR), taking lab stage ideas / IPs all the way up to PMF (product market-fit) stage. It will oversee product development, pilot production, digital technology integration, customer validation and funnel, startup governance, team building and fund-raising support.
Commenting on IndusDC’s commitment to building global hard-tech ventures, Kushant Uppal, Founder & CEO, IndusDC said, “The energy transition journey will create 40T$ of new business opportunity, globally. Labs and inventors across the globe have the best technologies for Co2 emission reduction. The challenge lies in building ventures from identifying the right IP, building the right teams and processes, keeping customer focus and infusing appropriate capital along the journey of building the venture. At IndusDC, we are building platforms to address each stage of the startup as they scale from lab to market. Our team is deeply committed to establishing the benchmarks for an IP-focused decarbonisation venture studio and making it an attractive asset class for investors. We are delighted to welcome our investment partners who share our vision of building a sustainable future.”
