To truly understand the problem we’re facing, just look outside.  
- Adi Oza, co-founder, EMotorad 

In a country, and a world, that is defined by a climate crisis that has eclipsed everything else, changing the air we breathe, the water that keeps us alive, and the land and its waste, ‘India’s Green Start-Ups' chronicles the stories of 14 Indian entrepreneurs who have created innovative solutions, proving that effective business models responding to a climate-stressed world can, and do, exist. Ranging from food technology and agriculture to electric vehicles, batteries and financing, the entrepreneurs’ ventures in the book demonstrate purpose, scale, and a keen awareness of India-specific problems that they are solving.  

Authors Jayant Sinha (former management consultant and national politician; venture capitalist) and Sandiip Bhammer (management educator and founder, Green Frontier Capital) bring a rigorous selection criteria to the companies in this book: asking whether they have ‘deep purpose’, an evidenced commitment to changing the world, environment, and planet around them; the ability to scale, and create India-wide customer impact. Often, the solution for climate-tech companies does not stop at their own innovative product, research or technology, but must extend and integrate within a larger, often complex ecosystem. For instance, Sameer Aggarwal with his organisation RevFin, is developing the capability to measure credit scores among those with lower incomes in India, such as taxi drivers, which will then allow them to lease their own vehicles, particularly important when average incomes in India do not allow for vehicular ownership; in this way, financial inclusion becomes a crucial part of the electric vehicles business. 

Sinha and Bhammer explore an array of related questions: balancing profit vs. the planet; the challenges in accessing capital and growing as a young company; the importance of localising technology and solutions; and both the daunting size, and opportunity, of the problem: India is one of the three largest greenhouse gas emissions-producing countries in the world; it is the largest populated country in the world; and the largest producer of milk in the world. The dairy industry accounts for 40% of the methane produced in India. There will be 10 billion people in the world by 2050; over 1 billion of whom will come from India. Experts estimate that this will be difficult to achieve without significant changes to dietary habits, farming methods and resource utilisation. Yet, using their keen eye for business management and incisive ability to identify promising entrepreneurs, the authors have put together a book which shrinks down the problem into neat solutions, offering a cross-industry view on the most cutting-edge, committed and passionate entrepreneurs: including those behind BluSmart, RevFin, Accacia and ZeroCircle - who are moving us toward a greener, safer future in tangible terms, challenging often-held views that the problem is too big, unprofitable, and abstract to be solved. 

In this conversation, Jayant Sinha and Sandiip Bhammer will discuss their commitment to supporting entrepreneurs, particularly climate-tech entrepreneurs; their long engagement with environmentally-friendly business models and addressing the climate crisis; the stories that have most resonated with them from the book; and India’s complex, yet rich, business environment. They will be joined by Neha Jain, founder of ZeroCircle. What are some planet-friendly solutions that entrepreneurs are finding? What are the larger problems that need to be solved in order for India to solve its climate crisis? Across industry (food, transport, fashion, finance), what does sustainability mean? What do entrepreneurs need to succeed, and what lessons can we take away from the founders profiled in this book?  

This conversation is part of Asia Society India’s Library Series, which includes discussions, interviews and features on books and authors who offer new ways of understanding the world around us – across fiction, non-fiction and analysis. 

Jayant Sinha is a distinguished Indian policymaker and investor, having chaired the Finance Committee in Parliament (2019–2024) and served as Minister of State for Finance and Civil Aviation (2014–2019). His policy achievements include developing India’s bankruptcy code, architecting the tax code for Alternative Investment Funds, establishing India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund and Higher Education Financing Agency, launching the UDAN and DigiYatra schemes and helping privatize Air India. Sinha has also led many climate  Policy initiatives, such as introducing India’s first net zero bill in Parliament. As a venture capitalist, he has three unicorns to his credit and is widely recognized as one of the key shapers of India’s startup ecosystem. Previously, he held leadership roles at Omidyar Network and McKinsey & Company. Sinha holds degrees from IIT Delhi, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Business School.

Sandiip Bhammer is the founder and managing partner of Green Frontier Capital, a leading India-focused climate-tech venture firm. With over 30 years of global finance experience, he has held prominent investment roles at DA Capital, Balyasny Asset Management and the Amaranth Group, as well as senior investment banking positions at Citigroup, HSBC and CLSA. As an adjunct professor of Finance at UMass Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management he taught sustainability-focused startup investing. He continues to mentor and serve on several startup boards across India and the USA. Sandiip holds an MBA from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management, an MSc in Finance and a BSc in Business Administration from Boston College’s Carroll School of Management. He was awarded the 2022 Meaningful Business 100 Award.

A Google alumna with over 15 years of experience in technopreneurship, ZeroCircle is Neha Jain’s second entrepreneurial venture. Her journey into algae entrepreneurship began as a sustainability tech consultant, searching for innovative solutions that brands could adopt as scalable models. She founded ZeroCircle in July 2020, in the middle of the raging COVID-19 first wave in India. Today, Neha and her company have patented the technology to create seaweed-derived materials that are sustainable and ocean-safe alternatives to synthetic plastics and paper. Zerocircle recently launched their seaweed-coated products for the F&B industry with brands that are taking an intentional stand against petro-plastics. 

Experience Partner