India's Climate Tech Window: The Sector Getting $500M but Missing Business Models
Climate tech is getting capital. Climate tech founders are building solutions. Almost none of them have answered the question that determines whether they're a business.
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“Indian climate tech's central business model problem is the payer gap: the entity that benefits from a climate solution is frequently not the entity that must pay for it. Until founders close this gap structurally — not through grants — they have projects, not businesses.”
“The climate tech categories that will produce Indian unicorns in the next decade are not in solar panels or EV charging. They are in climate-resilient agriculture, industrial decarbonization services, and carbon market infrastructure — all categories where the payer and the beneficiary are the same entity.”
“India's regulatory climate tech tailwind — PAT scheme, carbon credit frameworks, renewable purchase obligations — is real and underused by founders. The companies that build compliance infrastructure into their product from day one have a moat that foreign competitors cannot replicate.”
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Amit Tyagi
Founder, AletheiaAI & GP, Fitoor Capital
Veteran of India's startup ecosystem. Writing about fundraising, investor psychology, and what it takes to build fundable startups in India.
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