VCs invested over $2.5B in green financing solution in last 36 months: report

Access Development Services has launched the report titled ‘Inclusive Finance India Report’ – an annual publication, highlighting the pathway for effective Green Financing to empower Small Farmer Holders by enabling credit access and easier adoption of fintech solutions. Launched by N S Vishwanathan, Former Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India at the 19th Inclusive Finance India Summit, the report states that Venture Capital invested approx $ 2.5 billion in agri financing in the last 36 months and will continue to gain interest in the coming years. 

The research report also suggests that for agritech players to build and scale the business model around Green Financing, they would need catalytic effort, collaborations and partnerships. Additionally, most farmers, especially small-holder farmers, would need financial incentives to shift from existing practices to adopting new technologies for smart irrigation, soil and water conservation, building water ponds, sowing drought-tolerant seeds, and using integrated pest/nutrient management techniques. 

Commenting on the report, Hemendra Mathur, Venture Partner, Bharat Innovation Fund, and Co-founder, ThinkAg said, “It’s very timely to see an upswing in climate-solving innovations developed by young entrepreneurs for climate risk mitigation, adaptation and resilience. Climate-linked financing and insurance products need a lot of integration of technology for these models to scale. There is a need to build a strong public ecosystem and policy support for climate-solving agritech startups like the kind of interventions we see in other climate risk-related areas such as electric vehicles, mobility and pollution-tech.”

The report further states that the combination of policy, investments, catalytic capital, blended finance and innovations has the potential to solve climate challenges facing Indian agriculture. Government, policymakers, industry, funds, investors and startups have to work together to build long-term and ever-lasting solutions to make Indian agriculture climate resilient and sustainable.