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

Varaha, an Indian climate tech startup founded in 2022, has secured $20 million in fresh funding as part of a planned $45 million Series B round led by WestBridge Capital, marking the venture firm’s first climate tech investment. The startup has raised about $33 million in equity, alongside $35 million in project financing and grants, to scale carbon removal projects across Asia and Africa. Varaha focuses on delivering verified carbon removal credits at lower costs by leveraging India’s advantages—such as lower operating expenses, extensive agricultural supply chains, and technical talent—targeting corporate demand for emissions reductions driven by sectors like data centers and AI workloads. Varaha develops carbon removal through four main pathways: regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, biochar, and enhanced rock weathering, working primarily with smallholder farmers and industrial partners in emerging markets. It has generated over 2 million tons of CO2 removal across 14 projects and issued around 150,000 carbon removal credits through international registries like