Climate and resource tech for the Global South
$1T+ India climate capex through 2030. Solutions designed for India work in 60+ emerging economies.
India will spend more than one trillion dollars on climate-aligned infrastructure between now and 2030 — more than any other emerging economy. Beyond the headline number, climate solutions designed for India tend to work in sixty other emerging economies that share India's constraints.
I. The market shift
Scroll to walk through the three structural shifts. The chart on the right updates as each step comes into view.
$1 trillion of climate capex is being deployed
India committed to 500 GW of non-fossil power capacity by 2030 (up from 180 GW in 2024). The renewable energy buildout alone requires $300-400B. Add $80-150B in EV infrastructure, $100B+ in battery storage, $50B+ in water and sanitation modernization, and $200B+ in green hydrogen and decarbonization across heavy industry. The IEA's India Energy Outlook 2025 puts cumulative climate capex through 2030 above one trillion dollars in central-case projections.
The structural opportunity Western climate funds are missing
Western climate funds underwrite for Western unit economics — $5,000 residential solar systems, $40,000 EV price points, $150 per kWh battery costs. These solutions don't reach the Global South customer. Indian climate companies are building for $500 systems, $5,000 EVs, and unit economics that work at half the GDP-per-capita threshold. That cost engineering, once proven in India, scales to sixty other emerging economies that share India's constraints — affordability, intermittent infrastructure, and the need to leapfrog rather than retrofit.
Water and air are the under-funded crises
India's climate venture activity is dominated by EV, solar, and batteries — categories where capital is competitive. The under-funded categories are water (Bangalore 2024, Delhi 2024, Chennai 2019 are not one-time droughts but signals of a long-term trend) and air quality (which affects two billion people in the Global South daily). These are exactly the categories where Indian-engineered solutions translate fastest to other emerging markets.
II. Sub-themes within the pillar
Distributed water infrastructure
Atmospheric water generation, decentralized treatment, and digital water management for cities, real estate, and humanitarian/aid markets. The TAM is two billion people who lack reliable drinking water; the buyer profile spans residential premium, commercial campuses, defense, and multilateral aid procurement.
EV and grid-storage operating systems
Not the batteries or the vehicles themselves — those are commoditizing — but the software layer above them. Fleet management, charging-network orchestration, energy-storage optimization, billing and revenue ops. Net retention is structurally above 100% because the customer's asset growth automatically increases their bill.
Air, decarbonization, and resource efficiency
Air quality monitoring and remediation, industrial emissions reduction, circular-economy infrastructure (recycling, materials recovery). The buyer is increasingly the Indian government and large industrial customers driven by ESG mandates and PLI schemes for green manufacturing.
III. Where we see the wedge
Within this pillar, we look for three specific shapes of company. Each is a different way of expressing the same conviction.
Atmospheric water generation, decentralized treatment, digital water platforms — engineered at Indian unit economics, scaling to GCC, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
EV fleet OS, charging-network orchestration, grid-storage optimization. Not the assets, the software running them. Multi-decade tailwind, recurring revenue, expanding TAM.
Emissions monitoring, energy efficiency, circular-economy platforms for heavy industry. Buyers compelled by both economics and regulation.
IV. Why we have the right to win in this pillar
Climate is the pillar where capital sees the trillion-dollar number but most funds lack the technical depth to underwrite hardware-led companies. Our AeroNero (atmospheric water) and Energy Company (EV/storage SaaS) bets demonstrate operator-grade conviction in the category. The Hurun network's deep relationships with Indian conglomerates and family offices anchors the customer pipeline.
V. Companies in our portfolio expressing this pillar
The bets we have already made are the proof that the conviction is operational, not theoretical. 2 companies in Fund I currently sit in this pillar.
VI. Outlook
We expect 2–3 of Fund II's positions in this pillar. Concentration on the operating-layer software (better economics, higher returns) and selective hardware bets where the cost advantage is structural.
The four pillars sit inside one thesis. Read the cornerstone essay, or see how Fund II operationalizes them.