India’s Varaha bags $20M to scale carbon removal from the Global South

Varaha, an India-based climate tech startup, has raised $20 million in fresh funding as it looks to scale carbon removal projects from the Global South and position itself as a lower-cost supplier for verified emissions reductions.

The investment marks the first portion of a planned $45 million Series B round led by WestBridge Capital, the venture firm’s first investment in climate tech, with participation from existing investors including RTP Global and Omnivore. Founded in 2022, Varaha has raised about $33 million in equity to date, alongside $35 million in project financing and $500,000 in grants, as it builds carbon removal projects across Asia and Africa.

India has emerged as an increasingly important base for carbon removal projects, offering lower operating costs, deep agricultural supply chains, and a large pool of technical talent as corporate demand for verified removals rises, including from companies facing growing energy use from data centers and AI workloads. Varaha is positioning itself to capitalize on those advantages, arguing that its execution-focused model allows it to deliver carbon removal at lower cost while meeting the same international verification standards as higher-priced competitors in Europe and North America.

Varaha’s advantage lies less in proprietary technology and more in execution, said co-founder and chief executive Madhur Jain in an interview, arguing that high operating costs could become a constraint for carbon removal developers in wealthier markets as prices come under pressure.

“If carbon credit is a cost to the businesses that are buying these carbon credits … it’s a cost on their balance sheet. It’s not a CSR item,” Jain told TechCrunch. “And hence, if the cost of a certain geography is going to be so high by an order of magnitude of like, 1.5x to 3x credit production, it is going to be extremely hard for those companies to survive.”

Varaha develops carbon removal projects across four main pathways: regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, biochar, and enhanced rock weathering, working largely with smallholder farmers and industrial partners in emerging markets. The startup generates and sells verified carbon removal credits through international registries, including Puro.earth, Isometric, Verra, Gold Standard, and Switzerland-based Carbon Standards International, positioning itself as a supplier to global corporations seeking durable and independently validated emissions reductions.

To date, Varaha has removed more than 2 million tons of carbon dioxide across 14 active projects, generating around 150,000 carbon removal credits, Jain said. He added that the startup was the first in India to issue carbon credits from biochar projects and the first in Asia to issue credits from enhanced rock weathering through an international registry.

Varaha reported revenue of ₹430 million (about $4.76 million) last financial year from delivered credits and expects revenue to rise to nearly ₹2 billion (around $22.15 million) this year, while remaining profitable after tax.

The startup has signed long-term offtake agreements with global buyers including Google and Microsoft, as well as corporates such as Lufthansa, Swiss Re, and Capgemini.

Varaha currently operates across India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Ivory Coast, working with about 170,000 to 175,000 farmers over roughly 1.7 million acres, Jain said. The latest funding will be used to expand into additional markets in South and Southeast Asia, including Vietnam and Indonesia, while deepening its presence in existing geographies.

The startup is also rolling out an Industrial Partners Program, which allows industrial operators with access to sustainable biomass and gasification capacity to generate verified biochar-based carbon removal credits using Varaha’s measurement, reporting, and verification systems. The program is already operational with partners in West Africa and India, including agribusinesses and a steel producer, as Varaha looks to scale carbon removal through partnerships rather than owning all assets itself.

“The problem is so big that tech, etc., will become open source over a period of time,” Jain said. “So what matters the most is the execution.”

Varaha employs about 225 to 230 people, including roughly 55 across technology, science, product and data roles, with more than 80% of its workforce based in India. While the startup does not maintain offices overseas, it has staff in markets including Nepal, Germany, the U.S., and Australia, reflecting its growing international customer base.

“We believe Varaha is uniquely positioned to build a global carbon-removal platform from India, combining integrity, scale, and impact,” said Sandeep Singhal, co-founder and managing partner, WestBridge Capital. “This investment reflects our conviction in the team and their potential to shape the next phase of climate infrastructure worldwide.”