Merak Ventures & Huddle Launch Accelerator Programme To Back Climate Tech Startups

Early stage focussed venture capital (VC) firm Merak Ventures and accelerator-led fund Huddle have announced a climate tech-focussed accelerator programme, ClimAct.

The applications for the programme begin on November 8, 2022, and the cohort will kick off in February 2023. The initiative will run for four months culminating in June 2023. 

While the number of startups that will snake to the cohort is undisclosed, the selected climate tech startups will receive an upfront pre-seed capital of $200K each and a follow-on investment of up to $1.5 Mn.

Besides backing these startups with early stage funding, ClimAct will support the shortlisted startups in the building and validation phase. It will also extend a networking opportunity to the startups for pilot programmes to validate the impact of the products. 

These startups will also receive $500K worth of infrastructure credits (to build the products) as ClimAct partners with AWS,  Freshworks, Notion, Onsurity and other platforms.

ClimAct is looking to back Indian startups working in areas such as:

• Agriculture wastage and supply chain efficiency – Startups with solutions for food loss reduction, cold chain infrastructure, precision agriculture and more
• Mobility and transport – Startups offering clean mobility, logistics, novel battery solutions and more
• Climate financing and investing solutions
• Carbon accounting and sequestration and
• Related digital solutions including those working within the education sector, ESG compliance, climate advocacy and more. 

The fund partners include Aavishkaar Capital, Accel, Lok Capital, Matrix Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital and Stellaris Venture Partners.  

Climate tech startups account for less than 10% within the global startup funding ecosystem and even less (<2%) within venture funding in India. 

Between 2016 and 2021, such startups have raised a little over $1 Bn, compared to $40 Bn across 600 plus companies globally. This raises the need for pushing investments within the climate tech segment.

“ClimAct will serve as the conduit for early stage startups to get pre-seed funds, amass value from our partner network, and ease of access to climate focussed venture capital,” Sheetal Bahl, partner, Merak Ventures said.  

There are only a handful of funds set up for the climate tech segment. Recently, VC fund Climate Angels launched a syndicate fund to help investors invest in climate tech startups easily. The syndicate would write cheques between INR 3 Cr – INR 10 Cr ($375K – $1.2 Mn) in climate tech-focussed startups for the period of six years.

In March this year, Gujarat’s climate change department also set up an INR 500 Cr fund for climate tech startups. Last year, the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Youth Co:Lab also launched an accelerator programme.