Harsha Moily's $200 million fund to focus on climate tech companies

Former Karnataka chief minister M Veerappa Moily's son, Harsha, will launch a $200 million venture capital fund that will focus on the nascent climate technology sector.

The fund will identify promising entrepreneurs and companies from India and Israel working on four verticals - sustainable agriculture, green buildings, energy storage and alternative energy.

"India is nowhere close to the US, Europe and Israel in developing technology-enabled solutions to climate change. Since climate change is a vast area with huge potential, we have picked out four verticals that account for 80% of our GDP," Moily told ET.


The VC firm of four general partners including Moily has found four-five investors who have shown interest to commit 30-40% of its target capital. "I will reach out to a few more investors in the US once the borders open," Moily said, adding that it plans to close the round by December. Moily has, for over two decades, worked across sectors like agribusiness, private equity and infrastructure. In 2006, he founded Moksh Yug, a micro finance enterprise that worked closely with rural dairy farmers.

The VC fund will not support solar, hydro and wind power-related initiatives, because of the heavy use of fossil fuels in their supply chain and the waste that they generate.

"We will back disruptive technology to small nuclear power plants that operate using depleted uranium," he said.