Global Climate Career Platform Terra.do Raises $5 Million Seed Round Led by Avaana Capital
Company Raises $5 Million Round Led by Avaana Capital, with Participation from Notable VCs and 150+ Individuals in the Climate Community
STANFORD, Calif., June 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Terra.do, a global climate career platform with the mission to get 100 million people working in climate by 2030, today announced the launch of its mobile app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. The free app offers unique, insider access to climate professionals and hiring managers at top climate tech companies, facilitating direct connections between climate employers and prospective talent. The app also allows users to apply for Terra.do’s highly sought-after and extremely effective climate fellowships. The release brings climate jobs, learning, and a vibrant community together in a single all-encompassing platform, making Terra.do the ideal starting point for the burgeoning base of professionals looking to build their careers in climate.
To scale the app, Terra.do announced the close of a $5 million seed investment round. The round was led by Avaana Capital, a $150 million climate-focused fund, and included participation from SIG, the TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, Precursor, BEENEXT, City Light, Hummingbird Firm, and Avesta. In keeping with the company’s community-focused spirit, the round supplemented traditional VC fundraising with participation from 150+ entities and individuals residing in a dozen countries. These included community-driven syndicates such as MCJ Collective, E8 Angels, C3, and Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs, and well-known individuals including Albert Wenger (founder, Union Square Ventures), David Helgason (founder, Unity), and others. Completing the round were investments from more than 50 Terra.do alumni, ranging from farmers who run the Terra.do Climate Farm School to former oil and gas executives making clean-energy transitions and activist shareholders who shook up ExxonMobil’s board.
“The time is now and the climate crisis is not waiting, nor will it fix itself,” said Anshuman Bapna, co-founder and CEO of Terra.do. “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.”
Anjali Bansal, founder and chairperson of Avaana Capital, added, “At Avaana, we believe that climate and sustainability are the next digital. 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 exciting new app and unique 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.”
A 2021 Gartner study on the Great Resignation found that the COVID-19 pandemic made 56 percent of American employees want to contribute more to society. Meanwhile, the PwC State of Climate Tech 2021 report shows that climate tech now accounts for 14 cents of every venture capital dollar, leading to inevitable talent shortages. Terra.do’s new app aims to connect these dots.
The app goes beyond traditional job boards by allowing climate tech hiring managers to host huddles, run Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) forums, and engage in meaningful conversations with users, fostering genuine connections that lead the right talent to the right jobs. Prospective employees can bypass the tedious process of finding and blindly applying to jobs on typical job boards. Meanwhile, companies can build their employer brands and evangelize their climate solutions within the Terra.do ecosystem, all while increasing community awareness of the rapidly evolving landscape.
These features build upon the virtual job fairs that Terra.do is known for in the climate ecosystem. Terra.do job fairs have already connected more than 10,000 talented professionals with 100+ climate tech employers. The company is hosting its next virtual job fair on June 29 in partnership with My Climate Journey (MCJ) Collective, a well-known climate fund & community, and attending employers include actively hiring climate tech companies from the portfolio of MCJ Collective. Interested talent can sign up in the Terra.do app.
Meanwhile, Terra.do continues to scale up its learning activities. Several thousand mid-career professionals from 25+ countries have now completed the company’s cohort-based learning programs, ranging from complete climate landscape overviews to deep dives into venture capital investing in climate, climate-resilient agriculture, and more. Program fellows also get mentorship from experts in climate science, policy, business, and finance. Users of the new app can apply to all these programs and will soon have exclusive access to a brand-new suite of free climate learning experiences.
This broad suite of offerings makes Terra.do the premier hub for climate talent, which employers will now be able to access through vetted “talent drops.” Every week, the company drops a new curated list of professionals hand-selected for depth of skills, relevant experience, and a keen desire to work in the emerging climate tech economy. Climate tech companies interested in hiring from Terra.do’s talent base through the talent drops, job fairs, and more can register to be a Terra.do employer partner at terra.do/hire. More than 30 top climate tech companies, including Afresh, NextEra Mobility, Voltus and Arcadia have already signed on as partners and are leveraging Terra.do to cut through the noise when it comes to hiring.
Diego Saez-Gil, CEO of Pachama, said, ”We can now attract previously unreachable talent from Big Tech to join our mission to restore nature. Even better, we know that if we reach out to these professionals to start a hiring conversation, we will hear back. That is priceless.”
About Terra.do
Terra.do is a global climate career platform founded in 2020 by Anshuman Bapna, Dr. Kamal Kapadia, and Mayank Jain with the mission to get 100 million people working in climate by 2030. 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. Its immersive, cohort-based climate learning programs boast several thousand graduates from 25+ countries. Through Terra.do’s job fairs, talent drops to employers, and rich network, its members have found roles in hundreds of leading climate tech companies and Fortune 100 sustainability teams and founded dozens of climate startups. For more information, visit www.terra.do
About Avaana Capital
Avaana Capital is a $150M early to growth stage VC fund platform based in India, investing in technology and innovation-led start-ups that catalyze climate solutions and sustainability and deliver exponential returns. Avaana’s investment approach integrates four ecosystems that drive investments in climate and sustainability, namely Digital Innovation, Industry Linkage, Policy & Academia and Catalytic Capital. Avaana’s investments in India include Farmart, Alphavector, Coverstack, Eeki Foods, Praman and Eggoz, while Avaana’s team has invested in and supported several unicorns like Nykaa, Delhivery, Urban Company and Darwinbox. For more information, visit: https://avaanacapital.com/
SOURCE Terra.do – Terra.do Launches Mobile App Combining Climate Careers, Learning and Community, Becoming the Platform to Start Working in Climate (prnewswire.com)
