Venture Capital’s New Frontier: Why India Wins in AgriTech, Rural Fintech, & Climate Resilience
Description
My guest is Mark Kahn, Managing Partner at Omnivore, a $295 million venture capital firm investing in startups across agriculture, food, and the rural economy in India, focused on climate risk resilience.
In this episode, we talk about how venture capital can be redesigned to fund climate adaptation in the real economy, and still deliver real returns.
Mark shares what he’s learned from over a decade investing in agritech and climate adaptation in India, and why institutional investors continue to underestimate the opportunity in emerging markets.
We also discuss:
- how Omnivore balances financial returns with measurable impact
- why fintech for inclusion is key to rural transformation
- why fund managers need to build for climate resilience, not just growth
Tune in to hear why India may be the most logical and overlooked bet in climate-smart venture capital. And why it's time to fund adaptation before it's too late.
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- Intro (00:00 )
- Childhood shaped by global curiosity and diversity (03:57 )
- Disappointment with Penn’s pre-professional culture (10:51 )
- Burned out from early political consulting career (13:07 )
- Harvard project with ITC ignites India focus (18:40 )
- Omnivore's origin and spinout from Godrej Agrovet (27:26 )
- Omnivore - high-level overview (35:09 )
- Climate adaptation over mitigation in India (41:35 )
- Investment strategy organized around four business models (43:24 )
- Impact measurement - standardized IMM and field surveys (51:29 )
- Agritech startups must mature into agribusinesses (58:21 )
- Global capital still overlooks India’s VC opportunities (01:02:20 )
- India’s life sciences sector limited by talent shortages (01:06:06 )
- Alternative protein is culturally irrelevant for India (01:10:41 )
- Agricultural subsidies need replacing with direct transfers (01:14:17 )
- Rapid-fire questions (01:19:58 )
- Contact info (01:23:31 )
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Additional Resources:
Mark Kahn LinkedIn
Omnivore Website
United States
