Theia Ventures: Climate tech's early believer

Early capital for India's energy transition

Theia Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm dedicated to climate technology — one of India's pioneering funds focused on energy transition, deeptech and decarbonisation. Founded in 2021 by Priya Shah and based in Bengaluru, Theia operates as a SEBI-registered Category II Alternative Investment Fund. Its stated mission is to unlock much-needed early-stage capital for Indian startups building transformative technologies that disrupt the energy status quo.

Investment thesis

Theia backs startups developing differentiated technologies to decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors: heavy industry, manufacturing, materials science, mobility and supply chains. The firm's view is that petroleum- and coal-based products and processes are being rapidly replaced by cleaner fuels and energy sources, creating a vast opening for innovation in areas such as carbon removal, novel materials, green mobility, battery technologies, clean logistics, renewable energy and biotech. It favours technology-driven, B2B-leaning companies with real decarbonisation potential over consumer-facing climate storytelling.

Sectors and stages

Theia invests at pre-seed and seed stage, focusing on energy transition (energy management solutions, electric mobility, next-generation batteries) and broader climate tech (biomaterials, decarbonisation technologies, circular economy, sustainable materials). Fund I is designed to make 18–20 investments across heavy industry, manufacturing, materials, mobility and supply chains.

Fund size and cheque sizes

Theia Ventures Fund I has a target corpus of $30 million (around ₹266 crore) and announced its first close in October 2025, having secured commitments exceeding 50% of the target, with a final close expected by the end of the financial year. The anchor investor is British International Investment (BII), joined by global backers Allocator One (Germany), the Cisco Foundation (US) and Vitality Capital Partners (Australia), plus Indian family offices and groups including Anand Mahindra, Meher Pudumjee of the Thermax Group, JM Financial, the Vimson Group, the Shivanand Salgaocar Group and Pramit Jhaveri. Japan's MOL PLUS, the venture arm of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, has also committed to the fund. Typical cheques range from $500,000 to $1 million, with more than 50% of the corpus reserved for follow-on rounds.

Notable portfolio

Fund I has begun deploying into Sarla Aviation, the Accel-backed electric air-taxi company, and Climitra Carbon, a biocoal startup serving the steel industry, in which Theia led the pre-seed round. It has also committed to ventures in precision fermentation (altM) and AI-based energy data modelling, with more deals expected. The investment team brings a prior proprietary track record in energy transition, having backed Exponent Energy, AltM Bio, Octolife and Metastable Materials before the fund.

Partners and team

The firm is led by founder and managing partner Priya Shah, who has been investing in the energy-transition space for years and brings deep networks across climate-tech founders, industrial incumbents and development-finance institutions.

Programs, accelerators and perks

Theia Ventures runs no publicly documented accelerator, incubator or fellowship programme, and there are no publicly documented startup credits or perks. Its support comes through hands-on early-stage partnership and access to its climate and industrial network.