Zerodha’s Rainmatter invested Rs 275 crore in 2024 across climate, health startups: Nithin Kamath

Early-stage venture firm Rainmatter invested around Rs 275 crore in 47 startups last year, with climate and health startups receiving the largest share of investments in terms of volume, according to a tweet by Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath.

While fintech remains the leader in Rainmatter’s overall portfolio, with the highest number of funded startups, the trend shifted in 2024. The firm supported 15 climate startups and 16 health-focused ventures, compared to 8 in the fintech segment during the year.

The firm has earmarked Rs 1,000 crore for investments over the next few years, Rainmatter head Dinesh Pai said in a blog post.



“We may be early, but our thesis right now is that climate and health will be megatrends of the future. Considering that we think of Rainmatter as one way of giving forward, we want to back founders working on helping Indians be healthier and making the planet more livable,” Kamath said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Since its inception, the Bengaluru-based fund has invested in over 100 startups, including 32 fintech companies, 27 climate-focused firms, and 24 healthtech ventures. It has deployed around Rs 700 crore in total since 2016.

In September 2024, ET reported that Rainmatter had invested Rs 10 crore each in water recycling startup Boson Whitewater and nutrition-focused brand TruNativ.

Profits from Rainmatter Capital’s investments are channeled back into supporting more entrepreneurs and the Rainmatter Foundation, the company’s non-profit arm, Kamath had earlier noted.

The fund’s fintech portfolio includes startups such as Cred, insurtech startup Ditto and investment platform Smallcase. In the health and fitness space, Rainmatter has backed The Whole Truth, Ultrahuman and Fittr, while its climate-focused investments include Akshayakalpa and Solarsquare.

It’s not uncommon for tech startups to establish their own venture arms. Flipkart, for instance, operates Flipkart Ventures to support Indian startups. Similarly, US tech giant Amazon runs the Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund, a $250 million India-focused fund for early-stage startups. Payment aggregator Razorpay caught up with the trend in November 2024 with the launch of its investment programme to back early-stage startups developing services and solutions for businesses.

Kamath’s investment journey began with angel investments in founders and ideas he found inspiring. Rainmatter was officially launched in 2016, with his earlier angel investments being routed through the fund thereafter.

“We bring patient capital to tackle long-term challenges, provide visibility to innovative solutions, and foster collaboration between portfolio companies. Climate and health represent crucial challenges for the coming decades, and we’re committed to supporting entrepreneurs who dare to tackle them,” Pai said in his post.