The bio-economy startups in India fighting climate change
The startup ecosystem in India is agog. And why not. GoI estimates suggest that there are close to 75,000 “recognized” startups in the country – there could be over 100,000 if someone searched with a fine-tooth comb. Whew!
While until now, the
Ecommerce, fintech, edutech startups have hogged the limelight, of late climate tech firms have also started becoming quite prominent. That’s a good thing too.
But
bioeconomy startups ecosystem have not gotten the mindshare they deserve sector within climate tech. A pity, as this field is as exciting as any other domain within the climate tech ecosystem.
EAI’s CO3 Bio division estimates that there are 150-200 Indian startups with a strong bio-energy or bio-materials focus. These work in domains such as
biofuels, bio-based heating & power,
biomaterials including
bioplastics & bio-based plastic alternatives. Some of the
agritech startups also intersect with climate tech. Interestingly, a significant percentage of these are in their early stages making them an exciting prospect for angel / seed investors / HNIs. (Some of these startups are presented at our India Climate Tech 100 list – https://lnkd.in/dCUu4NWQ )
Beyond just the enterprising nature, what I see in many of the startup founders in the bio-economy ecosystem is the zeal they have to make a social impact. While I reckon most climate tech domains have some degree of social impact (in addition to environmental), the social impacts are likely to be highest for the bio-economy startups.
While the sector presents significant decarbonization potential for India, it is perhaps less understood and less organized compared to its climate tech counterparts such as solar, electric vehicles, energy storage, energy efficiency etc.
I’m hoping this can change, and one of our objectives at CO3 Bio is to help startups in this important sector achieve their potential – especially as India is expected to have a pretty large bio-economy market size about $50 billion by 2030 (for just bio-energy & bio-materials).
To know more about how we assist startups and innovations in the Indian bio-economy ecosystem, do check out our CO3 Bio section – https://lnkd.in/gQAkxujH
Some Indian bio-economy startups:
BiofuelCircle | Biofuels Junction Pvt Ltd | Buyofuel–Kishan| Farm2Energy | BIO-LUTIONS | Bioprime™|Blue Tribe Foods| ClearMeat®|Craste|EM3 Agriservices Pvt. Ltd. | Farmagain–Benjamin| Imagine Meats| Kheyti –Sathya|Krishitantra|Kriya Labs Pvt Ltd (Ankur Kumar)| RuKart – Sharayu Kulkarni, Gunavant Nehete| Takachar|Niqo Robotics |Wakao Foods| Bambrew Saikat De| Phool.co Ankit Agarwal | ZeroPlast Labs (Aditya Kabra)| CanvaLoop Shreyans Kokra)|Proklean Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Dr. Sivaram Pillai, Vishwadeep Kuila)| Saathi Pads –Kristin|String Bio Private Limited (Vinod Kumar)
See my LinkedIn post on this topic