The India-based climate technology startup Prithu has successfully closed a $1.1 million (10 crore INR) funding round led by Transition VC, the nation’s first venture capital fund focused on the energy transition. Established in 2024, Prithu designs a full-stack carbon removal platform centered on nature-based solutions (NBS) and climate-positive agricultural practices. This seed funding injection, which follows previous angel-round support from the Startup India Seed Fund, is earmarked to scale Prithu’s on-ground operations and establish commercial pathways through offtake agreements with global credit buyers.

The primary challenge targeted by Prithu is India’s critical soil carbon depletion crisis, which directly threatens agricultural resilience and rural livelihoods. Historically, integrating smallholder farmers into international carbon markets has been highly difficult due to a systemic lack of transparency, tracing, and scientific credibility in rural soil programs. Global credit buyers increasingly demand high-integrity, data-traceable, and verifiable nature-based removals, presenting a steep barrier for small-scale agrarian communities that lack advanced digital monitoring infrastructure.

To bridge these operational and market gaps, Prithu offers high-integrity carbon credits generated from a suite of regional regenerative agricultural practices. These include soil organic carbon enhancement, alternative wetting and drying in rice cultivation, and high-tech biocharBiochar is a carbon-rich material created from biomass decomposition in low-oxygen conditions. It has important applications in environmental remediation, soil improvement, agriculture, carbon sequestration, energy storage, and sustainable materials, promoting efficiency and reducing waste in various contexts while addressing climate change challenges. More application. Crucially, the startup verifies these activities using a proprietary, blockchain-powered digital measurement, reporting, and verification (DMRV) system. This digital framework combines satellite monitoring, machine learning, on-ground soil sampling, and biogeochemical modeling to align and verify credits against strict international standards, including Puro, Gold Standard, and Verra.

The successful funding round positions Prithu to accelerate its on-ground regional execution, targeting a monumental expansion to 500,000 hectares (123,000 acres) of nature-based projects over the next 12 to 24 months. By scaling these programs, the startup aims to sequester 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030 while simultaneously generating new income streams for smallholder farmers via verification-linked revenue-sharing models. This programmatic expansion delivers a credible model to rehabilitate degraded tropical soils, reduce regional emissions, and bring verifiable, structured nature-based credits to manufacturing, aviation, technology, and energy buyers.