It’s easy to see what’s motivating India’s emerging ecosystem of sustainable technology startups with a glance out the window from the office of Sangam Ventures in Gurugram, just outside of Delhi.
Several floors below the firm’s balcony, power lines crisscross over piles of garbage, a fleet of rickshaws, and cow patties on a rooftop that are being dried for use as cooking fuel. Above it all lies a blanket of yellowish smog.
“What we are trying to do as a fund is define what climate change entrepreneurship needs to look like,” Karthik Chandrasekar, the founder of early-stage cleantech venture capital firm Sangam, said in an interview at his office early last year.