Varahaan India-based climate tech startup, has raised $20 million in new funding as it looks to scale carbon removal projects from the Global South and position itself as a lower-cost supplier of proven emissions reductions.

The investment marks the first part of a planned $45 million Series B round led by WestBridge Capital, the venture firm’s first investment in climate technology, with participation from existing investors including RTP Global and Omnivore. Founded in 2022, Varaha has raised about $33 million in equity to date, along with $35 million in project financing and $500,000 in grants, as it builds carbon removal projects across Asia and Africa.

India is emerging as an increasingly important base for carbon removal projects, offering lower operating costs, deep agricultural supply chains, and a large pool of technical talent as corporate demand for proven removals increases, including from companies facing growing energy use from data centers and AI workloads. Varaha is positioning itself to take advantage of those advantages, arguing that its implementation-focused model allows it to deliver carbon removal at a lower cost while meeting the same international verification standards as its higher-priced competitors in Europe and North America.

Varaha’s advantage lies less in proprietary technology and more in execution, said co-founder and chief executive Madhur Jain in an interview, arguing that high operating costs could be a deterrent for developers to offset carbon in wealthier markets as prices come under pressure.

“If the carbon credit is a cost to the businesses that buy these carbon credits … it’s a cost on their balance sheet. It’s not a CSR thing,” Jain told TechCrunch. “And so, if the cost in a specific geography becomes higher by an order of magnitude like, 1.5x to 3x credit production, it will be more difficult for companies to survive.”

Varaha develops carbon sequestration projects in four main channels: regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, biochar, and improved rock weathering, employed mostly by small farmers and industry partners in emerging markets. The start-up creates and sells verified carbon credits through international registries, including Puro.earth, Isometric, Verra, Gold Standard, and Carbon Standards International based in Switzerland, positioning itself as a supplier to global corporations seeking stable and independently validated emission reductions.

To date, Varaha has removed more than 2 million tons of carbon dioxide in 14 active projects, generating about 150,000 carbon removal credits, Jain said. He added that the startup is the first in India to issue carbon credits from biochar projects and the first in Asia to issue credits from improved rock remediation through an international registry.

Varaha reported a profit of ₹430 million (about $4.76 million) last financial year from granted credits and expects revenue to rise to nearly ₹2 billion (about $22.15 million) this year, while maintaining a profit after tax.

The startup has signed long-term offtake agreements with global buyers including Google and Microsoftas well as corporations such as Lufthansa, Swiss Re, and Capgemini.

Varaha now operates across India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and the Ivory Coast, working with about 170,000 to 175,000 farmers on roughly 1.7 million acres, Jain said. The latest funding will be used to expand into additional markets in South and Southeast Asia, including Vietnam and Indonesia, while deepening its presence in existing geographies.

The startup also launched an Industrial Partners Program, which allows industrial operators with access to sustainable biomass and gasification capacity to generate verified biochar-based carbon removal credits using Varaha’s measurement, reporting, and verification systems. The program is already working with partners in West Africa and India, including agribusinesses and a steel producer, as Varaha looks at scaling carbon removal through partnerships rather than owning all the assets itself.

“The problem is so big that the technology, etc., will be open source for a period of time,” Jain said. “So the most important thing is to kill.”

Varaha employs about 225 to 230 people, including roughly 55 across technology, science, product and data roles, with more than 80% of the workforce based in India. While the startup does not maintain offices overseas, it has staff in markets including Nepal, Germany, the US, and Australia, reflecting its growing international customer base.

“We believe Varaha is uniquely positioned to build a global carbon-removal platform from India, combining integrity, scale, and impact,” said Sandeep Singhal, co-founder and managing partner, WestBridge Capital. “This investment demonstrates our conviction in the team and their potential to shape the next phase of climate infrastructure around the world.”