NOW, a sustainability action venture studio, has announced its launch for driving innovation and entrepreneurship in the sustainability and climate tech sectors in India.
The climate tech and deep tech venture studio said in a press release that it will invest in and co-build 3 to 4 startups over the next 12-18 months.
Venture studios give entrepreneurs a supportive ecosystem to transform their idea into a scalable venture. Under this model, NOW will assist founders of startups by providing finance, mentorship, product-market fit, access to market opportunities, corporate partnerships for prototype/solution validation and access to climate-tech experts.
Founded by Gayathri Kuppendra Reddy, an entrepreneur, trained climate leader and active angel investor, NOW will invest $250,000-500,000 each in deep tech sustainability and climate tech startups in the next 12-18 months, the release said.
“Environmental issues on the ground highlight the urgent need for the development and scaling of innovative solutions that can address these adverse effects. NOW operates in a venture studio model, whereby we accelerate the journey of a founder from idea-to-revenue through a unique de-risking methodology, hands-on entrepreneurial co-building, and milestone-based funding,” said Pradeep V, venture partner at NOW Venture Studio.
The company's focus for the first phase will be on key sectors vital to reducing the global carbon footprint and advancing environmental resilience, including built environment, industrial and supply chain decarbonisation, energy, EV and mobility, agriculture and food, circular economy, and low carbon materials, it said.
"At NOW Venture Studio, we believe that climate and sustainability present the greatest challenge, but also the most significant opportunity of our lifetime," said Reddy. “NOW's vision is to build category leaders in sustainability and climate tech by leveraging deep tech and deep science-led innovations. We are looking for bold, disruptive and audacious entrepreneurs or founders with an idea/patent/prototype who are committed to solving and building for critical areas of sustainability and climate.”
Early-stage deep tech founders developing sustainability and climate technologies often struggle to move beyond the early stages due to the challenges of scaling innovative solutions in traditionally slow-to-change industries. They need a partner and a supportive ecosystem that goes beyond financial backing. Globally, venture studio startups are reported to have a 30% higher success rate than traditional startups and 84% of studio startups go on to raise a seed round versus 25-30% of traditional startups.
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