Role of DeepTech in Sustainability

In the second edition of DQDeepTech, various stakeholders of the DeepTech ecosystem--innovators, investors, enterprise tech decision makers--discussed the role of DeepTech in sustainability and next generation climate innovation.

Von Leong, Cofounder, Purpose Venture Capital, said she was okay with technology risk. We look at emerging technologies that fit into government policies for competitive advantage. The same thing can also help in developing industry and infrastructure. I am looking at convergence of emerging technologies. It can be AI and blockchain, etc. We look at regenerative medicine that can cure diseases. New AI tools is bringing in more technology. New genes can also be brought to cells and blood. We are also interested in blockchain. It is also about ESG, sustainability and climate change. We are looking at making blockchain sustainable. We can promote this with the governments, and look for sustainable stay. A sister company has gone into greenifying paper exchanges. They are reducing carbon consumption from mining. Deeptech will take 1-3 years to make all that happen. It is time to invest in those innovations.

David Ashwood, Director of Engineering, Agora Carbon Alliance, said we need to have the right conversations with customers. Deeptech is all about a technical component as part of that conversation. We need to understand what the customer needs and the pain points, and applying right technical solution. Blockchain is interesting as it can provide a framework for doing work across multiple tech sectors. Lot of tech companies think they are experts in some domains. The real expert is the customer whose problems you are trying to solve. If you do that well, you can have a framework for different sectors. When you bring teams together to solve problems, the key gap that remains is understanding the customer.

Von Leong, Purpose Venture Capital, most VC funds are not patient enough to invest in deeptech. They may need blueprint or financial mapping of technologies. They may not risk in emerging technologies. Lot of teams are more finance trained, and not engineering- and scientific-trained. Deeptech is problem oriented. Water is a hard problem to solve. For private equity funds, they have low risk factor. They prefer to invest in big names. Corporate ventures partner more in the product development. They may not invest in the emerging tech in their own company. Appetite for risk has been increasing due to the wealth concentration. Now, there are lot more investors in deeptech.

Swapnil Shrivastav, Cofounder, Uravu Labs, agreed that water is a sector difficult to understand. Customers and government also need to understand this. We also need to understand the VCs who are investing in deeptech hardware. Today, deeptech innovations try to solve problems and take a niche. It takes time to bring systemic changes. It is a long-term gain. We need to conquer a niche and grow from there.

Shyam Menon, Partner, Bharat Innovation Fund, said sustainability is broad area. Areas available for investment fall under two categories -- sustainable production and sustainable consumption. You have to create products in a sustainable manner, and also look at consumption. A visible area is transition to renewable energy. Another is the EV path. We need to make the existing grid cleaner. Food systems and agri are other big areas. We need to decarbonise, and reduce nitrogen fixation, and ammonia. Agri is a contributer to greenhouse gases. Production efficiency in India is less than 60 percent to that of China. Once you make food, we need to get that to consumers. There are supply chain inefficiencies that need to be brought down. If consumers wants to have food that is sustainable, then naturally, producers will take that route.

Clean industry tech is another big market. Efficiency is dysmally low. We have lot to do there for carbon reduction. Smart buildings are another area where you can look at improving efficiencies. New tools are coming up to help you measure what you are consuming. You have the opportunities for all of these across the board.

There is lot more hardware, than software in many areas. For EV, you need the mobility infrastructure do. A big company is better placed. There are areas where startups can be far better. There are opportunities in areas that are less capital intensive. Hardware is lot more difficult to manage than an Internet-based software solution. There is now a need to transition to better living. It is slowly building. Over time, we expect conversations will shift to India. Companies in India are also working on low-carbon future. Climate change is visible to everybody. Transition to a sustainable future is here.