Kalyan Gautham

Very highly recommend "Climate Capitalism: Winning the Race to Zero Emissions and Solving the Crisis of Our Age" by Akshat Rathi. https://amzn.to/4cQE9VS It is one of the best climate business books I've read, talking about the development of the EV and the battery industries (CATL), how CCU was originally developed by the oil-industry for natural gas, how International Energy Agency (IEA) was formed after the 70's oil crisis and how Fatih Birol built it to its current influential state, and Bill Gates and the forming of Breakthrough Energy and more :) Remarkable Ventures Climate

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From our PearX S25 cohort, meet Pravāh, the AI-native operating system for the electric grid When Mohak Mangal, Dhruv Suri, and Aman Gupta looked at the strain on the U.S. electric grid, they saw a system pushed to its limits. Exploding demand and unpredictable supply have made blackouts increasingly common. This costs the economy more than $150B a year, a number that could 10x in the next five years. Mohak Mangal and team founded Pravāh to help fix it. Their platform helps utilities and grid operators make real-time decisions on load, generation, and congestion, reducing blackout risks, optimizing power procurement, and bringing much-needed stability to the backbone of modern life. We’re proud to support the Pravāh team as they take on one of the toughest and most important infrastructure challenges of our time.

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Having just returned from a week working in Bangalore with our team, meeting textile and apparel producers, we heard firsthand the challenges—and big opportunities—facing India’s manufacturing sector as it charts a path toward decarbonization. In our latest article for Impact Entrepreneur, Dr. Laxmikant Jawale, Ph.D.(Tech) and I reflect on why India is positioned to lead this transformation, what’s needed to unlock the remaining $4 billion in financing, and how local solutions, if supported well, could scale globally. This is more than a climate issue—it’s a chance to future-proof livelihoods, reduce pollution, and ensure the textile industry remains competitive in a changing global market. Read the full piece here. Apparel Impact Institute #ClimateFinance #Decarbonization #IndiaTextiles #JustTransition #SustainableManufacturing #ImpactEntrepreneur

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No founder wants to pitch a VC with no cash.  That’s why we’re sharing the list of firms below that have fresh capital to deploy. 🔴 McLean-based Veteran Ventures Capital raised its second $60M fund to focus on defense and aerospace sectors. 🔴 Kolkata-based IIM-Calcutta Innovation Park announced a $5.7M fund to back early stage cleantech and sustainability startups. 🔴 Mumbai-based Boundless Ventures launches its $22.8M fund to support AI startups emerging from India. 🔴 Stockholm-based Norrsken Evolve closed its $66M fund to target startups transforming energy, manufacturing, logistics, construction, food, healthcare, information security, democracy, and climate resilience. 🔴 London-based Clean Growth Fund closed its second $66M fund to back innovations across power and energy systems, transport and mobility, industrial decarbonisation, buildings and the built environment, agrifood and land use, circular economy, waste and water. 🔴 Singapore-based Immortal Dragons launched a $40M longevity fund.

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Never thought I would ever venture into VC space, but I'm glad I did. Though it's just a brief 1 month period, it has opened my perspective. Thanks to Venture Institute by VC Lab, which seeks to democratize VC education to more folks at large through this free program. 💡 3 key takeaways from my participation so far: 1. It's more than CONNECTIONS A VC is basically playing a match maker role, guided by a clear investment thesis, to bring like-minded investors and start-ups/founders together, to yield a tangible outcome for both parties as well as the society at large. But that is only the 1st step. It's important to understand the conviction of both sides to ensure a good match which can last the distance to yield the desired outcome. 2. Due Diligence alone is not sufficient The traditional approach of issuing cheques and waiting for updates after due diligence is made, is no longer 'enough'. With the pace of change happening so fast in modern times, any startup can grow exponentially but also go the opposite way in a blink of an eye. In today's day and age where knowledge is abundant, the growing trend of venture studios is a direct answer towards the shift of paradigm from the Power Law to a Pareto Principle - with the hope of playing a bigger role in clearing roadblocks for startups/founders to work them towards their path of success. Due diligence ensures investments are according to guidelines and transparency & accuracy of financial data which are necessary & essential, but it doesn't have means to stop a falling tree from falling. 3. 2/20 Rule - An Ideal Approach for any long term endeavors This learning is my biggest takeaway from the whole programme - which can be applicable to country, company, project or life. Doing this prudently will ensure long term financial sustainability. Last but not least, let's all be reminded that 'money is energy' and it needs to flow to convert from one form to another. Else, it will be simply eroded away with inflation. 😊

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🚀 Exciting News in India’s AI Ecosystem! Natasha Malpani, former Kae Capital partner and Stanford alum, has launched Boundless Ventures, a ₹200 crore (~$23M) early-stage VC fund dedicated to empowering AI-native #startups at the intersection of science, systems, and identity. What’s in focus: • Pre-seed and seed-stage investments into consumer AI, AI infrastructure, agent tooling, healthcare & logistics verticals, and make-in-India hardware/deeptech. • Already invested in six promising startups: Superhealth, Armatrix, Piersight, Knot, plus two Stealth Ventures. • First cheques are in the range of $200K–$400K, with reserves set aside for follow-ons. The fund expects to back 20–30 companies. • Beyond capital, Boundless delivers narrative support, global storytelling, and strategic market access—backing the technical and cultural vision of founders as they build new categories. #AI is moving from experiments to infrastructure, Natasha notes—and with India’s talent density and digital momentum, the next decade of AI innovation is set to be led right here. This fund arrives at a critical inflection point. 🌟 Big congratulations to Natasha and the team—looking forward to seeing the trailblazers you help launch!

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#TheTenYearFixedTerm. It drives the entire startup ecosystem. Here’s how. Week 4 of “Venture Capital” at the Santa Clara University School of Law. LPs don’t want to be trapped in an illiquid venture capital fund forever, paying annual management fees. How can they get out? There is a secondary market for those interests, but it’s primarily opportunistic, and targets desperate sellers. So without a structural endpoint, they could be trapped forever. And there is: the 10 year fixed term. On that anniversary, subject to possible but limited extensions, the fund must terminate and wind-up, distributing its final assets to its investors. Seems benign, but the impact is massive! 1️⃣ Our #VC and #startup culture is defined by SPEED. Startup-to-growth-to-liquidity, as quickly as possible. Market dynamics are most certainly relevant, and prevalent. But there’s a structural driver as well: yes, the 10 year fixed term. If you are going to fully harvest your fund in 10 years, you need to front-load your investment activity (to ensure that your portfolio companies have at least some time to grow and ripen). So VCs race to deploy their capital within the first 5 years. But that’s not all - they then apply pressure on founders to drive toward exit. Which in virtually all cases, is M&A (sale of the company). The need for LP liquidity within 10 years drives the need for startup speed. 2️⃣ #AgencyCosts refer to the inevitable conflicts-of-interest that arise when one party (the agent) is tasked with acting on behalf of another party (the principal). In the #VC context, the ultimate principal is the #LimitedPartner, and their agent is the #VentureCapitalist. Limited partners want big returns, and liquidity. But what’s to stop the VC from diverting focus (and capital) toward an unending lifestyle instead? In other words, people have their own agendas and motivations. Always. So how does this principal, here, ensure that incentives are aligned and agency costs minimized? Yep. The 10 year fixed term. By dramatically limiting the space for self-dealing by creating a brief window of active existence, the VC is forced to focus on getting to liquidity. They simply do not have the opportunity to selfishly create an endless, self-perpetuating empire underwritten by the limited partners. Bracketed with their carried interest, the VCs are incented to focus on big returns in a concentrated period of time. Exactly what the LPs want! I was on the road this week, and so I recorded the lecture for the students. I normally can’t provide access to my lecture recordings, because they live behind university firewalls, but this week I bootlegged it and uploaded them to my YouTube channel. If you are interested, this lecture (broken into 3 segments) is available there for free - no agency costs in sight! #DWProf

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