Paytm founder to invest in green tech

Paytm’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma will invest his personal money in startups working on environment sustainability.

“I would like to start off by investing Rs 10 crore of my personal money in startups that are interested in working on environment’s sustainability,” Sharma told HT.

Not just startups, Sharma also plans to invest in any ongoing government or private initiative working on the protection of the environment.

“We need to take a holistic approach towards curbing pollution. Alarming pollution level is not limited to the National Capital Region. It is a national phenomenon,” Sharma says.

On November 2, moved by alarming pollution levels after Diwali, Sharma, in a series of five tweets talked about his first encounter with smog (a mix of smoke and fog), the emergency to save the nature and his interest to support startups working towards environment sustainability.

In his first tweet, Sharma said: “Five years back, I saw Beijing smog first time, I asked myself: why do people live in such polluted city? Today: same moment and Q for Delhi.”

He went on to say, “Developing economy pay price. In early Industrial age, even in few US cities, people use to change shirts two times in day due to pollution!,” in his next tweet.

His third tweet gave the startup community, especially those working on environmentfriendly initiatives, something to cheer about. He tweeted: “I am ready to fund and build network of startups/labs for environment sustainability in India. Today 5 cities’ tomorrow 50 cities’ problem.”

In his fourth one, he said, “Will build and contribute all possible.”