Climes

Owned by Ashu Sikri (Unlicensed)
Feb 21, 2022
2 min read

Introduced through Priya at Theia Ventures

Goal is to move capital towards carbon removal and avoidance in India

Consumers can purchase “climes” at various “checkout” points (delivery services, OTAs/ flights, even weddings)

Each clime cost 1 rupee and gives purchaser the right to neutralize 1kg of carbon (or INR1000 or $13 for one ton of CO2e)

Users now have a climes balance which they can allocate to whatever project they want; if users don’t allocate after 30/45 days, the climes are automatically allocated.

Estimate that high end urban Indian consumers (target market) has a carbon footprint of 1.5 tons per month (flights, delivery orders, clothing, etc.)

Focusing on building a convenient user experience to purchase Climes (API integrations with online merchants like MakeMyTrip, Zomato and easy to opt-in for a Chimes purchase at checkout) and allocate Climes (can browse and allocate to projects over whatsapp)

Set 1 rupee per kg to make things easier for consumers so on the supply side, looking for projects which sell credits for $4-5 per ton to keep a decent spread

Currently only listing projects from Verra and GS but want to ramp up supply

I pointed out that Biochar credits are selling for $85 to 100 per ton; while there is a longer-term roadmap towards chimes being converted to tokens which can then purchase credits of different value, they are focusing on a simple consumer experience for now

Sold 20k chimes so far

What do users want?

  • Idiosyncratic / personal: some people hate hydroelectric, some hate waste to energy

  • Current and future vintage: don't want to buy "old" credits

  • transparency: Can I see it? imagery and open line of comms w project developer. human rather than technical transparency (corporate buyers care about technical transparency, eg, Pachama)

  • bias towards nature based solution

Next steps:

  • Climes wants to ramp their supply side and keen to bring on projects that are “permissionless” (eg, not Verra or GS certified)

  • While they don’t have much flexibility on price they will pay per ton (sounds like between $5 to $8), their pitch is that the revenue will come in immediately rather than having to wait 18 months for registry approval and finding a buyer.

  • They are apparently fielding lots of interest from project developers incl nature based solutions and want to design “lightweight” MRV approaches to bring these credits to market. I indicated we would be open to reviewing and being part of MRV development for biochar or other sustainable ag projects