Bangalore-based Theia Ventures was launched by Priya Shah to invest in early-stage climate technologies that aren’t yet on many investors’ radar. Shah has raised more than $15 million – past the halfway mark of the fund’s $30 million goal. British International Investment anchored the fund with a $5 million investment.
Other backers include Germany-based Allocator One, the Cisco Foundation and Australia-based Vitality Capital Partners.
Theia is aiming to invest in about 20 startups with checks of $500,000 to $1 million; it is reserving 50% of its capital for follow-on investments. It has completed at least 10 deals, including cooling system developer OctoLife, battery recycling company Metastable Materials, and waste-to-textiles maker Canvaloop.
“It’s an education process getting investors to understand the investment potential of such under-invested sectors,” Shah told ImpactAlpha in April.
Family funding
Theia was seeded with capital from wealthy Indian individuals and families, including automaker Anand Mahindra, Meher Pudumjee of Thermax Group, Pramit Jhaveri, the former CEO of Citibank India, and the families behind JM Financial and Vimson: Shivanand Salgaocar Group. Such investors are cautiously stepping into impact investing.
“They’re excited to have a window into technologies that can be applied to and utilized by their industries,” said Shah.
BII’s investment, meanwhile, aligns with the organization’s growing focus on climate opportunities in large, fossil fuel-dependent Asian economies like India, Vietnam and Indonesia (listen to ImpactAlpha’s recent podcast interview with BII’s Leslie Maasdorp).
