EVs, Energy, Water: Shailesh Vickram Singh's Thesis for the Next IPOs

Are the next trillion-dollar companies going to be climate tech? Veteran VC-operator Shailesh Vickram Singh (Founder, Climate Angels) makes the case—and maps a founder playbook for India’s climate-tech wave.

From UTI’s investments desk to SeedFund and then a full pivot to climate in 2017, Shailesh unpacks two decades of venture lessons and why “internet-scale” moats are shifting to resource-efficiency businesses. He explains Climate Angels’ ecosystem-first model (400+ corporate relationships via GoMassive/Massive Earth Foundation), where the real alpha lies in solving water, energy, mobility, and agri constraints—and why climate funds must distribute risk rather than chase winner-takes-all bets. He shared this journey in a candid conversation with Akshay Datt. Expect sharp takes on consumer internet vs. climate tech, how to source and underwrite early climate deals, and how founders can turn regulation and partnerships into GTM advantages. If you’re building in India’s climate economy, this episode is a field manual.

• How Shailesh built Climate Angels’ climate-first pipeline and investor network (UN/Corporate programs → early access to deals).
• Lessons from pivoting away from consumer internet to climate—where “edge” and cash-generating flywheels still exist.
• Climate VC risk 101: why distributed risk beats winner-takes-all thinking in finance.
• Sector theses founders can use now: precision agri, water efficiency, smarter inputs, and “constrained-environment” engineering.
• What corporate partnerships actually look like (MOUs, capital, access) and how to unlock them.

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00:00 - Why Climate Will Mint Trillionaires
01:11 - From UTI to Founder: Origin Story
10:45 - Bootstrapping CoolAvenues & Early Hustle
44:00 - Climate Alpha: Cash-Spinning Flywheels
46:37 - Building a Climate Fund the Hard Way
47:50 - Why VC = Risk Mitigation, Not WTA
52:51 - 400+ Corporate Partnerships: How It Works

#tags
Shailesh Vickram Singh, Climate Angels, climate tech investing India, climate startups India, Akshay Datt Founder Thesis, venture capital India, early-stage climate fund, GoMassive, Massive Earth Foundation, India decarbonization, EV and clean mobility India, water tech India, agritech sustainability India, energy transition India, climate angel syndicates India, AIF Category I climate, next trillion-dollar climate companies, startup funding India climate, corporate climate partnerships India, founder playbook climate