Paytm Head Vijay Shekhar Sharma and venture capitalist Shailesh Vickram Singh have together launched an environmental protection fund which will be dedicated to investing in startups, companies and individuals working towards mitigating environment-related problems in the country.
The new massive fund which is first of its kind will focus on large problems faced by humanity in the areas of food and agriculture, air and water pollution, renewable energy favouring sustainable development.
The fund aims to invest up to $150 million in the mentioned sectors keeping itself aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The fund will look up to Institutional and High net-worth investors to raise capital. Moreover, the fund will also aim to build an ecosystem for reducing pollution by collaborating with academia, mentors, researchers and professionals in the country.
Speaking on the recent development, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and CEO at 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.
In addition to the “Green Fund”, Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Shailesh Vickram Singh have also announced the formation of an incubator named “GoMassive” which will work closely with leading educational and research institutions like IIT Delhi, IIM Lucknow, NRDC and Sustainable India Finance Facility (SIFF).
On the other hand, Shailesh Vikram Singh who has a massive experience being an entrepreneur for two decades and is passionate about Tech, Agriculture, Income Inequality and Rural Poverty 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. I strongly believe that ‘If we do not solve this now then when, and if not us then who?”