Vineet Rai, Founder, Aavishkaar Group in conversation with Jennifer Forrest from  UK based, Environmental Finance  spoke about Aavishkaar’s first carbon strategy.

In the interview, Vineet shared how the nature-based vehicle, Aavishkaar Carbon, will be structured as a permanent capital vehicle and will invest activities or projects that support ‘bio-sequestration’ of carbon dioxide.

“We believe deeply in it,” founder and chairman Vineet Rai said. “We wanted to raise the fund, but then we decided to go ahead with the permanent capital vehicle in this space.”

The fund is in the ‘early stages’ of demonstration, having recently launched two pilot agro-forestry projects located in West Bengal and Jharkhand.

“The project viability and carbon integrity depend on cost-effective mapping and monitoring of the plantations,” the investor’s 2024 Impact Report said.

“We are looking to partners who are willing to invest capital for these strategies to be scaled-up. Simultaneously looking for those who are willing to enter carbon offset contracts,” Vineet explained.

Over the next few years, the carbon platform plans to invest in technologies which visualize and map agriculture lands, measure soil carbon and emissions, enable fractionalization of carbon credit ownerships and direct transfer of carbon value to the farmers.

Rai suggested that, even though market hype in the Asia Pacific region for carbon-based investing is still in its infancy, market confidence is set to grow.

He said: “In the next 12-18 months, as uncertainty comes down, [excitement] for carbon and nature-based solutions will come back, given its long-term nature.”

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