Terra.do, a global climate career platform aiming to solve climate crisis, has raised $5 million in a seed funding round led by Avaana Capital, a $150 million climate-focused fund.
The round also saw participation from SIG, the TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, Precursor, BEENEXT, City Light, Hummingbird Firm, and Avesta.
The round supplemented traditional VC funding with participation from 150+ businesses and people from a dozen countries, in keeping with the company’s community-focused attitude. These included community-driven syndicates such as MCJ Collective, E8 Angels, C3, and Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs as well as renowned personalities such as Albert Wenger (founder, Union Square Ventures), and David Helgason (founder, Unity), among many others.
More than 50 Terra.do alumni also contributed to the round, ranging from farmers who manage the Terra.do Climate Farm School to former oil and gas executives transitioning to renewable energy and activist shareholders, the company said in a statement.
Terra.do has also announced the release of its mobile app, which provides access to climate professionals and hiring managers at leading climate tech firms, allowing for direct contact between climate employers and potential talent.
Commenting on the development, Anshuman Bapna, Co-founder & CEO of Terra.do, said,
“The time is now and the climate crisis is not waiting, nor will it fix itself. We are on the precipice of real change—both the industry and talent have woken up to the impacts of the crisis and the hard work that is required. Opportunities abound in every corner of the world and within every aspect of society. Terra.do’s mission is now more relevant than ever; with funding closed and a new app launched, we are ready to run at warp speed to contribute to solving this crisis.”
The new app allows climate tech hiring managers to host huddles, run Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) forums, and engage in conversations with users. Prospective employees can bypass the process of finding and blindly applying to jobs on typical job boards. Companies can build their employer brands and evangelise their climate solutions within the Terra.do ecosystem, all while increasing community awareness of the rapidly evolving landscape.
Anjali Bansal, Founder & Chairperson of Avaana Capital, said,
“The climate crisis will require every aspect of our economy to transform and incorporate sustainability, resulting in the emergence of the climate economy. The current talent funnel for climate- and sustainability-trained professionals is broken, creating a large gap that will need to be filled at internet scale. Terra.do’s app and integrated approach, combining learning and jobs and empowered by a strongly engaged community, will enable better outcomes and help each one of us become a climate worker.”
Terra.do was founded in 2020 by Anshuman Bapna, Dr. Kamal Kapadia, and Mayank Jain. The platform brings together a wide-ranging community of professionals from critical climate industries such as energy, mobility, and regenerative agriculture and top experts in areas such as policy, science, and finance. The company has claimed that several thousand mid-career professionals from 25+ countries have completed its cohort-based learning programmes, ranging from complete climate landscape overviews to deep dives into venture capital investing in climate, climate-resilient agriculture, and more. Terra.do had raised $1.4 million in seed funding in August 2020 to scale its initiatives.
