Jun 6, 2018

‘Patron for Clean Air’ of UN Environment and one of the biggest hustler of Indian startup ecosystem, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, has decided to embark on a new journey with Shailesh Vickram Singh for Massive Fund for environmental protection. The new Massive fund claims to be country’s first, stage-agnostic, sector-focused and deep science fund with the aim of targeting large problems being faced by humanity in the areas of food and agriculture, air and water pollution, renewable energy, recyclables like e-waste and plastic, mobility, and sustainable built environment. Massive Fund will invest in startups, companies and individuals working on the agenda of Pollution Reduction aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It aims to drive an investment of $150 Mn in these sectors over the next few years. Massive Fund aims to build an ecosystem for reducing pollution by partnering with academia, R&D labs, mentors, professionals and venture funds across the country. The capital for the fund will be raised from Institutional and High net-worth investors who are aligned with the objective of saving the environment. Further, Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Shailesh Vickram Singh have also formed an incubator called “GoMassive” which is working closely with leading educational and research institutions such as NRDC, IIT Delhi and IIM Lucknow and Sustainable India Finance Facility (SIFF). GoMassive is running boot camps and conducting hackathons across Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Bengaluru to groom young startup teams to foster a spirit of green energy-led entrepreneurship. On the development, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and CEO, Paytm said, “There is an urgent need for bringing in technological solutions for reducing pollution. Through this initiative, we will provide adequate funding for innovations that can reduce air, water and plastic pollution efficiently on the scale. Our efforts, through this fund, will be to ensure that capital does not get in the way for innovative solutions to beating pollution.” With more than two decades of experience as an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist, Shailesh Vickram Singh has been associated with startups in tech space since early 1999. He is passionate about Tech, Agriculture, Income Inequality and Rural Poverty. Commenting on the development, Shailesh Vickram Singh, Managing Partner – Massive Fund said, “We aim to encourage young entrepreneurs to innovate and build solutions such as pesticide-free food, plastic removal, biodegradable packaging, CO2 absorption, pollution-free cities and sustainable housing which are crucial for our well-being. We will support our portfolio companies with high-end R&D labs and take insights from research institutes, scientists & academia.” Shailesh Vickram Singh added, “We will also facilitate interactions with large industrial conglomerates to validate & utilize their new-age tech solutions. I strongly believe that ‘If we do not solve this now then when, and if not us then who?’” Environment Focused Funds In India As a newbie to environmental concerns in India, Massive Fund and GoMassive joins the list of few funds and incubators/accelerators which have identified the need of cleantech and have been investing in the segment. Some of the biggest names which run incubator programmes focusing on the environment include Indian Angel Network incubator, which is sector agnostic, focused on cleantech, manufacturing, IT, web-enabled services, healthcare, foodtech, ecommerce, fintech etc. Then we have Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship, IIM Ahmedabad, which invests in Information communication technology, cleantech and social, big data, cloud, payments, and fintech. The 2018 MASSIVE Earth Summit, which brought together thought leaders from diverse fields to share their views and insights on the Pollution-as-Resource mindset Pollution Reduction Industry, a $15 Tn opportunity, is constituted by companies that utilize Pollution to create and sell products and services, and in the process reduce it. The Summit addressed an audience of 400 industrialists, venture capitalists, angel investors, bankers, senior government officials, foreign delegates and representatives from academia, think tank and media. At the time when the world is coming together to focus on environment and save the globe, an attempt to fund cleantech startups and incubate them through Massive Fund and GoMassive can be a huge step in the right direction. Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.  Previous article