Founded in India, Varaha develops carbon removal projects across biochar, afforestation, reforestation and revegetation (ARR); regenerative agriculture, and enhanced rock weathering (ERW).

The company has a contracted revenue projection (order book) of $100 million over the next two-three years and has been nearly doubling its size each year. After the Series B round, WestBridge will hold around 20% stake in the company.

Varaha has already made significant strides, enrolling over 283,280 hectares across India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Kenya. It works with more than 100 partners across these geographies to onboard smallholder farmers, with plans to increase this number by 4X in the next 12-15 months.

The company has already contracted and sold more than 230,000 carbon credits across a diversified project portfolio. Its customers include some of the largest marketplaces in the world, such as Klimate in Denmark, Good Carbon in Germany, Carbon Future in Switzerland, and top-tier companies in Europe, with strong interest also coming from financial institutions and tech companies across the UK and US.

Profitability thesis

With this, WestBridge Capital is now betting big on the climate tech segment in India.

“We do not have a choice. We have a crisis of gigantic proportions. It's a crisis bigger than any crisis humanity has ever faced. It slowed in the short term due to geopolitics, but activity has been bursting at the seams. Everywhere I look, there's a desire for various aspects of society to go towards sustainability and work against climate change,” Singhal said, explaining why the firm believes there could be multifold outcomes from the segment.

Agritech Startup

WestBridge makes debut bet in climate tech with carbon removal firm Varaha