IAN, Sangam Ventures back renewable energy startup Carbon Masters

Bengaluru-based renewable energy solutions provider Carbon Masters India Pvt. Ltd has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN) and Sangam Ventures, it said in a statement. The funding round was led by Nagaraja Prakasam and Mridula Ramesh from IAN and Karthik Chandrasekar from Sangam Ventures. Prakasam and Chandrasekar will join the company’s board. Last week, VCCircle reported that IAN had invested Rs 4 crore (around $618,764) in the firm. Recently, the startup also formed a partnership with Mahindra & Mahindra whereby the diversified conglomerate will invest in building plants that will convert waste into energy. Carbon Masters, founded in 2012, claims to have developed India’s first bottled bio-CNG brand called Carbonlites. Carbonlites is bio-CNG produced from the biomethanisation of organic waste streams.
The company also offers waste management – dry and wet waste – solutions for bulk waste generators such as hotels, IT parks, commercial kitchens and apartment complexes, among others. Besides, it runs a carbon emission reduction and certification programme, Carbon Masters Standard (India). Carbon Masters was founded by Som Narayan who has been working in the climate change space for the past six years, and Kevin Houston, who has previously worked with IBM, PwC (which was formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers) and IBM. “India has barely used its biogas energy potential and the sector has suffered from poor corporate and investor interest while European markets have saturated their potential,” said Chandrasekar. “The Carbon Masters’ team is focused on developing marketing and distribution linkages under the Carbonlites brand among farmers, municipalities, agro-industries and consumers for gas and fertilizers,” he said.
Several startups in this space have attracted funding. Last month, Mumbai-based clean-tech startup ION Energy raised an undisclosed amount of angel funding from Haptik founders Aakrit Vaish and Swapan Rajdev, besides Sushil Jiwarajka, OMC Power chairman, and founder of Nippo Batteries. In February, Clean Max Enviro Energy Solutions Pvt. Ltd received commitments worth $15 million from International Finance Corporation, the private-sector investment arm of the World Bank.

Source:VccirclSites