May 2025 – Bangalore & San Francisco
Alt Carbon just closed a $12 million seed round, led by Lachy Groom — a strong signal from someone who doesn’t back founders lightly. The round brings together a mix of returning believers and some of the most future-aware philanthropies and institutions in climate. It’s also India’s largest seed raise in the carbon removal space to date.
And this is more than a check.
This is a bet on a bold thesis: that climate tech doesn’t need to be reinvented in Silicon Valley alone. It can — and should — scale from places like India. From farms, not just labs. From overlooked supply chains. From founders who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty with basalt dust.
The Founders Are Thinking in First Principles
Alt Carbon’s mission centers on Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) — a natural carbon removal process that uses crushed basalt rock to lock CO₂ into the soil, then push it out of the carbon cycle for thousands of years via the oceans. It’s scientifically credible, cost-effective at scale, and has real permanence.
But here’s what really matters:
Shrey and Sparsh — the founding team — aren’t just executing on a science project. They’re building infrastructure. They understand that for climate tech to be more than a headline, it has to work on the ground — with farmers, with local governments, and within complex, fragile ecosystems.
They’re not importing ideas. They’re building a climate operating system rooted in the Global South.
The Darjeeling Experiment Isn’t Just Marketing
A lot of climate startups talk about narrative. Few know how to make impact visible.
Alt Carbon’s Darjeeling Revival Project (DRP) is doing something rare: connecting hard climate outcomes with cultural and economic restoration. They’re partnering with smallholder tea growers in one of India’s most iconic regions to deploy ERW — blending decarbonization, regenerative agriculture, and local pride into one integrated model.
This isn’t a pilot to get press. It’s a playbook for scaling meaningful, measurable impact where it counts.
Why This Round Matters
- Capital Efficiency: This $12M seed is a serious sum for climate infra, and the team is deploying it against tech, talent, and market development, not hype.
- Early Traction: Backers like Stripe (via Frontier), Mitsubishi, and South Pole aren’t dabbling. They’ve committed to offtakes, joint research, and deep partnerships. That’s real signal in a space crowded with science projects looking for business models.
- Global Relevance: Carbon removal needs to scale beyond the Global North. Fast. Alt Carbon is one of the first to operationalize ERW at scale in the Global South, with India as ground zero.
Why This Deserves Attention
Alt Carbon just brought on strong new team members — people who’ve done the hard work in policy, agri-tech, and data science. They’re building a studio layer to help others tell better climate stories. And they’re moving fast without over-promising — rare discipline for this stage.
I’ve seen too many climate companies chase capital without clarity. This team is different. They’re long-term thinkers. They’re rooted in real-world execution. And they understand that changing the climate starts with changing how we build companies.
If you’re thinking about the next decade in climate tech, Alt Carbon should be on your radar.
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