The venture capital fund Synapses debuted its first investment vehicle , with a goal of raising $125 million to invest in the healthtech and environment sectors.
The World Bank’s investment arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), previously employed Shukla as Head for South Asia, Disruptive Technologies, Direct Equity, and VC Funds. Meanwhile, Chandrasekar managed Sangam Ventures, a fund he founded that made investments in the climate space.
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Synapses seeks to bridge the gap between commercialization and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) innovation. As opposed to the majority of deeptech funds in India, which focus on a wide range of industries, the fund’s investment philosophy is to support STEM companies that address urgent health and environment issues.
“The companies Synapses supports will go beyond digitisation-brd business models, building STEM solutions that have a strong value proposition in global markets beyond India,” the firm said in a statement.
“We are nurturing a new generation of audacious, path-breaking innovators and helping them build leading global technology businesses to deliver outsized financial returns,” she said.
Venture capitalists are increasingly gravitating toward the industry because they recognize that the two most pressing issues facing society now are climate change and a rising burden of sickness.
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As many as thirteen funds devoted to climate change raised $719 million in 2023, while six funds raised an astounding $989 million in 2022, according to research firm Venture Intelligence. This was significantly more than the $90 million raised in 2021 by two climate funds and the $31 million raised in 2020 by one fund.
“The climate tech and healthtech solutions needed today sit at the intersection of STEM-innovation and agile as well as resilient, future-ready, infrastructure-like solutions that need to be deployed at utility scale,” said Chandrasekar.
About Synapses
Synapses climate Venture Fund supports STEM-led climate tech startups with funding, operations, and strategy to help them become global market leaders.
