Why we started India’s first climate change venture studio
Climate change is often seen as one of many social issues that needs to be tackled through altruistic efforts by civil society, activists, and governments.
However, climate change should be seen as an incredible opportunity.
The private sector, research and governments can create impact on the world and while creating financially sound businesses in the process. There are hundreds of emerging solutions in laboratories and workshops, with the potential to sequester carbon, avoid emissions, restore forests, reverse marine pollution — the list goes on.
But these solutions rarely make it out to industry at scale. In part, this is because the solutions are developed by researchers, students, or practitioners that have little to no business experience.
We are living in an age of extreme weather events, droughts, rising sea levels, and pollution. There is no time to waste–it is imperative we bring these innovations to the forefront of climate action and scale them up as rapidly as possible.
Scale and speed is where NOW Venture studio steps in. We co-build businesses with path-breaking solutions in deep tech and deep science.
The business case for climate change
We focus on areas like built environment, energy, decarbonisation, low carbon mobility, advanced materials, and climate intelligence. Each sector has been chosen with care to ensure that we target areas with the highest urgency and potential for impact.
Built environment
the building industry is responsible for 37% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Innovation in construction, design, and materials used can mitigate the embodied and operational carbon footprint of buildings.
Energy
Fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal continue to be the biggest polluters across sectors at a whooping 90% of all greenhouse gas emissions in history. Renewable energy promised to satisfy a growing energy demand sustainably.
Decarbonisation
Carbon dioxide emissions are embedded into every industry and business practice today. It is important to decarbonise and avoid these emissions, especially in hard to abate industries like manufacturing, steel and more.
Mobility
As borders become more open, last mile connectivity improves and people become more mobile, the mobility industry must transition away from fossil fuels and embrace greener and more efficient technologies.
Advanced Materials
Materials like plastics must be replaced with sustainable materials that do not persist in the environment for thousands of years. Innovation in the materials domain touches nearly all industries through its efforts.
Climate intelligence
Decisionmakers worldwide rely on data to make large scale decisions every day. From choosing the right supplier to curbing illegal deforestation, climate intelligence equips governments and industry with the right data and tools for sustainability.
The venture studio model
A venture studio model is a lesser-known pathway for start-ups, but the number of venture studios is growing every year. Venture studios make start-ups more likely to gather seed funding, reach IPO, aim for higher valuations, and be less likely to fail. NOW Venture Studio takes the expertise that a venture studio provides and applies it to climate startups solving the hard sustainability issues of today. Here’s how a venture studio model is unique:
1. A venture studio co-builds businesses to minimise risk
There is a lot of risk associated with starting a business. Venture studios help to minimize these risks and build capacity in the start ups to self-sustain after the period of intense engagement and collaboration is over. Some ways that venture studios support businesses are by helping them to find co-founders, obtaining funding from the seed round to series rounds, navigating business ecosystems, and much more.
2. Studios support the journey of startups with limited resources
Venture studios provide businesses with extensive support on strategy, marketing, knowledge sharing, administrative services, and much more. This helps startups focus on their core areas of operations and developing a minimum viable product (MVP), so it can get to the market faster.
3. Venture studios perfect product first, then process
The extensive support that venture studios provide to startups helps startups focus on their core business activities, such as developing and perfecting their products and services. Once the MVP is ready, the startups are then supported to build other infrastructure such as specialised teams in marketing, research, or finance.
4. Studios stay with the start ups up to the first 3 years
Studios support the startups intensely for the first 12–36 months as institutional co-founders. In this period, they are involved in almost a full time capacity with the startups and focus on building self-sustenance within the businesses. After the initial period of collaboration, the studio is still involved but in a less hands-on capacity.
5. A venture studio is not an accelerator
Though there are many similarities between venture studios and accelerators, they are very different. Accelerators build capacities in startups over a shorter period of time like a few weeks or months, such as workshops, mentorship, access to funding opportunities, and sometimes physical office spaces. On the other hand, venture studios focus on working with the startups over a longer period of time with more involvement and stake in the business.
We strive to bring high impact and innovative business ideas to the market by providing startups with the expertise they need to make climate solutions a reality. We focus on key areas in climate change that create the greatest opportunity for sustainability and financial growth.
Be the next climate unicorn today. Apply to be a part of our 2025 cohort now: https://f1vyleprf2x.typeform.com/to/BpVHyaIq?typeform-source=nowventurestudio.com
