Zerodha-backed Sustainability Mafia aims to accelerate climate jobs, founders, and deployable solutions across high-impact sectors

Bengaluru-headquartered non-profit The Sustainability Mafia (SusMafia) has secured Rs 2 crore in CSR funding from Zerodha, providing a significant boost to its efforts to strengthen India’s climate-tech workforce and early-stage innovation ecosystem.

The capital will be channeled toward expanding training, incubation, and ecosystem-building initiatives that support deployable climate solutions. Focus areas include clean air, water and sanitation systems, waste and resource recovery, emissions reduction, and circular economy models, where execution-ready talent and scalable startups remain in short supply.

Established in 2018, The Sustainability Mafia operates as a collaborative platform connecting founders, investors, corporates, and sustainability practitioners. Rather than acting as a traditional incubator, the organisation positions itself as an ecosystem integrator—pooling networks, capital access, and technical expertise to accelerate climate entrepreneurship and green job creation.

According to the organisation, India’s climate action landscape continues to face foundational bottlenecks, including a limited pipeline of job-ready climate professionals, insufficient early-stage validation capital for first-time founders, and fragmented pathways linking innovation with enterprise customers and real-world pilots.

Its flagship Climate Ninja program has trained over 400 professionals across climate and sustainability domains, while its startup support initiatives have distributed ₹1 crore in grant funding to emerging ventures. These efforts are reinforced by a network of more than 80 climate-focused entrepreneurs working across multiple sectors.

With the new CSR backing, SusMafia plans to train over 300 additional climate professionals, support more than 20 early-stage startups, and expand its convening platforms, including SusCrunch, which brings together stakeholders from across the climate-tech, finance, policy, and corporate landscape.

As CSR capital increasingly shifts from awareness-led sustainability efforts toward execution-driven climate outcomes, the Zerodha grant positions The Sustainability Mafia to scale its role as a critical enabler of talent, capital, and collaboration within India’s fast-maturing climate-tech ecosystem.