SusVentures aims to create 100 climate startups, inspire global sustainability movement

The Sustainability Mafia, a leading purpose-driven community of over 60 climate entrepreneurs, has announced the launch of ‘Sustainability Ventures’ aka ‘SusVentures’–a venture creation programme that aims to create 100 climate action companies by the end of 2026.

According to a press release, SusVentures is a first-of-its-kind venture creation programme that empowers tomorrow’s climate innovators. SusVentures hopes to enable entrepreneurs to identify and build their climate-tech startups focused on critical problem statements spanning across various industries that need attention on a priority basis.

The inaugural cohort of SusVentures was launched recently in collaboration with Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani), the first official university partner of the programme. 

The first cohort has enrolled 50 student entrepreneurs from multiple engineering disciplines from across the Hyderabad, Goa, and Pilani campuses of BITS Pilani to build 14 startups in sectors like circular economy, energy efficiency, EV and solar.

Besides a course to build on entrepreneurial skill sets, the programme empowers innovators with an idea bank, curated problem statements sourced from climate experts themselves to launch the much-needed startups.

In addition, the programme will match each startup with a dedicated mentor, a known entrepreneur in the domain, and will support the team with expertise, market access, deep customer connections for pilots, and more. Experts will mentor participants through in-class workshops to prepare them to pitch to investors during pitch day, win grant funding, access investors’ networks, and gain further activated acceleration support.  

“At SusMafia, we are all in on climate action and have a shared purpose of ‘give more than get’. We are excited to launch SusVentures as our flagship programme--designed and driven by industry veterans from the vibrant SusMafia community to provide activated mentorship to new climate startups,” said Arjun P Gupta, Director, The Sustainability Mafia.

SusVentures has received philanthropic support from Rohit Rajput (Intersection Ventures), Pradip Burman (Chairman, Dabur Nepal), Mirik Gogri (Spectrum Impact), and CSR funding from Parksons Packaging Ltd, Sanghvi Movers Ltd., among others. Theia Ventures, an official Investment partner, intends to invest $100,000 in equity funding to promising startups emerging from the programme.

The SusVentures programme has already pledged a non-dilutive grant of over Rs 31 lakh to the winning startup emerging from each cohort of the programme to fuel its growth.

Going forward, the program will be offered via two formats–in collaboration with top-tier Indian universities and in-person immersion programmes for a wider pool of applicants; including working professionals, corporate leaders, serial entrepreneurs and researchers.