We had an exciting and hugely engaging podcast with Shailesh Vikram Singh, co-founder of Massive Mobility.
Shailesh is passionate about making an impact. He believes that sustainability & venture capital thinking go together. He thinks that the current sustainable/climate tech space is analogous to how the e-commerce industry was in 2006. The trajectory in India is going to be different from how this space has evolved in the US and China.
His company Massive is one of the first funds entering the climate change sector in India. For entrepreneurs to grow, building an ecosystem is necessary. His network, the
Go Massive Earth Network is an excellent means to access resources like labs and scientists.
Massive measures itself only by returns, since the impact is evident in just the space itself they've chosen. More controversially, he concludes that getting entrepreneurs to focus on "double bottom lines" just confuses them. Impact investing kills the supply of capital and innovation ends up in a chokehold.
Shailesh sees a lot of potential in the mobility and waste management sector. The right opportunities exist and it's up to companies to harness them. His unconventional perspective on the role of policy is that "globally, innovation has always preceded policy, not the other way round". Let's take the example of the Delhi elections. Air pollution is still not considered an electoral issue. The government simply doesn't have the bandwidth to deal with it.
The classic mistake that he believes companies make is that they become activist in their approach; whilst a measured business-minded strategy is needed.