Climate tech startup Varaha has marked the first close of its ongoing $45 Mn Series B funding round at $20 Mn.
The round was led by WestBridge Capital, with participation from existing backer Omnivore Ventures. The company also said that RTP Global, which led Varaha’s Series A round, also joined the round with a super pro-rata investment.
The fundraise marks WestBridge’s first bet in the climate tech space in India.
The startup plans to utilise the fresh proceeds to expand footprint, strengthen its scientific as well as measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) capabilities. The company said that a chunk of the capital will also be deployed to scale a new industrial partnership model that will extend its capabilities worldwide.
Founded in 2022 by Madhur Jain, Ankita Garg and Vishal Kuchanur, Varaha is a clean tech startup that claims to operate 20 carbon dioxide removal projects across India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and the Ivory Coast.
The startup generates high-quality carbon credits by enabling farmers, with small land holdings, to follow regenerative agriculture and agroforestry. These credits are then used by businesses to offset their greenhouse emissions.
Earlier today, the company also announced the launch of Varaha Industrial Partners Program (VIPP) to help industrial operators decarbonise via a partnership model. The programme is focussed on biochar, which is a carbon-rich charcoal produced by heating organic biomass like wood, manure and crop residues in a low-oxygen environment.
Varaha is planning to partner with industrial players to offer its digital MRV and carbon credit origination capabilities. The startup will train partner staff, install sensors, implement its MRV system through the programme, with the resultant carbon credits either brought to market as offsets or used as insets by enterprises themselves. The recent capital infusion will be used towards further scaling this initiative.
Without disclosing names, Varaha added that the industrial partner programme is already operational in a West African cashew company along with multiple agribusinesses and a steel company in India.
The fundraise comes days after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a slew of incentives for the cleantech startups in her Budget 2026 speech. She proposed an outlay of INR 20,000 Cr over the next five years for a scheme focussed on the adoption of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS).
At the heart of all this is the Centre’s target of capturing 750 Mn tonnes of carbon dioxide from hard-to-abate sectors such as steel, cement, chemicals and aluminium by 2050.
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