The Brief: Investment and innovation in nuclear energy in India

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In today’s Brief:

• Investment and innovation in nuclear energy in India
• Solar recycling in Florida
• TDK Ventures’ decarbonization fund
• Housing for youth exiting foster care

Featured: Low-Carbon Transition

In India, clean energy investment and innovation includes nuclear power. India is one of the few emerging market economies that generates electricity with nuclear power. The country’s nuclear capacity is small, supplying just 1.5% of its energy mix. To meet its goals of becoming 50% renewably powered by 2030, India’s government is making a renewed push to build up its nuclear sector. And unlike past efforts, it is looking to foster technology development and private investment in new nuclear technologies, including in small, modular reactors, and even the still-distant promise of nuclear fusion. India’s “Nuclear Energy Mission,” announced in February, calls for the generation of 100 gigawatts of power from nuclear facilities by 2047 – up from about eight gigawatts today. The government is budgeting 200 billion rupees ($2.3 billion) to support research and development for small and modular reactors. It also signed a cooperation agreement with the US to develop American-designed nuclear reactors in India. “If it does work, it’s really going to push society ahead,” Vishesh Rajaram of Speciale Invest, a Chennai-based VC firm, tells ImpactAlpha. 

• Nuclear revival. In the US, the nuclear power industry is stirring back to life as a low-carbon energy source. The Department of Energy this week released another $47 million of a $1.5 billion loan guarantee to Holtec to reopen the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, which would be the country’s first restart of a closed commercial reactor. In the past 30 years, only two new US nuclear reactors have gone online. “We’ve got to put to bed this idea that there’s something bad with nuclear,” Jonathan Webb of The Nuclear Company said at San Francisco Climate Week. His company, based in Kentucky, is assembling technology from multiple suppliers to deliver standardized reactor designs more cheaply and quickly. Webb previously led the shuttered indoor farming company AppHarvest. He showed off the design of a planned reactor in South Carolina, to be co-located with data centers and advanced manufacturing. “We need to build on time, on money,” he said. “If we do that, there’s endless buckets of money, trillions of dollars, that will flood into building hundreds of gigawatts of nuclear in this country.”
  
• Homegrown technology. Support from India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is spurring venture investment in India’s homegrown nuclear energy startups. Hyderabad-based Hylenr Technologies, for example, is building a compact nuclear model that can be used for specialized purposes, like powering space missions. “Such advanced, compact and mass-manufacturable reactors will require a decade of rigorous testing and demonstrations,” says Anish De, KPMG’s global head of energy and natural resources. In addition to government grants for R&D, the nuclear energy ecosystem requires early stage capital for modeling, pre-project-development finance and construction finance, says Sama Bilbao y León of World Nuclear Association, a trade association based in London. “There is opportunity for investment [across] the entire value chain of nuclear.”
  
• Fusion future. Catalytic investors looking for climate impact in the world’s most populous country are backing energy transmission infrastructure, electric vehicle charging, battery recycling and climate-smart agriculture. Some investors are taking an even bigger swing: Indian energy startups Pranos Fusion and Anubal Fusion are developing methods for producing energy through nuclear fusion, which holds the promise of nearly unlimited energy without the dangers of meltdowns and nuclear waste of fission power (see, “Long coming but slow to arrive, fusion energy approaches a milestone on path to commercial deployment“). Like fusion hopefuls in the US and elsewhere, the technologies are still years from producing power on a commercial scale, and will require large amounts of capital for modelling and testing in controlled environments
  
• Keep reading, “In India, clean energy investment and innovation includes nuclear power,” by Shefali Anand on ImpactAlpha. 

Dealflow: Clean Energy

OnePlanet snags $7 million for first-of-a-kind solar recycling plant in Florida. The cost of solar technology has plummeted with more efficient technology and manufacturing. That has meant the decommissioning of many early-model solar panels, creating a new source of electronic waste. As tariffs spike the cost of imports, recycling efforts are growing to divert panels from landfills and bolster domestic supplies of silicon, aluminum and silver. “This presents an opportunity for us and other recyclers to recover some of the high-waste, critical metals resident in panels and reintroduce them back into the domestic supply chain,” André Pujadas of solar recycling startup OnePlanet told ImpactAlpha. The Jacksonville, Fla.-based company this week raised a $7 million seed financing round to support the construction of a first-of-a-kind plant in nearby Green Cove Springs. When completed in 2027, the River City plant will be able to process an estimated two million photovoltaic modules. 

• Tax credits. The funding round was led by Khasma Capital, an investment firm focused on circular economy tech and first-of-a-kind plants like OnePlanet’s. “Solar module recycling is not only necessary, it is investable at scale, with durable tailwinds driven by regulation, economics and resource security,” said Ashlynn Horras of Khasma, formerly Nexus Development Capital. OnePlanet was awarded a $14.5 million Investment Tax Credit in January under the US Department of Energy’s advanced energy and manufacturing program. The fate of the tax credit, along with others established under the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, is uncertain as the Trump White House seeks to roll back climate-focused incentives. “We don’t know what’s going to happen,” Horras said of the policy battles. “It’s not slowing us down in terms of momentum. We’re going full force.”
  
• More. 

TDK Ventures rolls out $150 million decarbonization and digital transformation fund. Japanese conglomerate TDK Corporation launched its third corporate venture fund with a $150 million commitment. TDK Ventures’ third fund will invest in seed to Series B rounds of “deep tech” companies advancing digital transformation and the energy transition. That includes next-generation materials, recycling and reuse, climate tech, e-mobility, and decarbonization of emerging economies. 

• Challenger tech. The fund is based in San Jose, Calif. and invests globally. TDK Ventures’ Tina Tosukhowong sees an opportunity for what she calls “challenger technologies” that can thrive in a deglobalized world (see, “As trade wars heat up, climate investors back homegrown ‘Challenger technologies’”). “If you have unrestricted material flows, then established technologies like solar PV and lithium-ion batteries are probably the best bet,” Tosukhowong told ImpactAlpha. With global trade barriers going up, alternative technologies that don’t rely on imports look more economical, she says. For example: sodium ion batteries, which rely on abundant soda ash, or precious metal recycling. Tariffs, she said, are an opportunity to “pause and think about how we might make all of the portfolio companies future-proofed.”
  
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Dealflow overflow. Investment news crossing our desks:

• India’s EF Polymer, which produces biodegradable polymers from fruit peels to improve soil health, raised $6.6 million in a Series B round to set up a manufacturing facility and accelerate research and development. (FinSMEs)

• Spanish clean energy and infrastructure investor Plenium Partners secured €25 million ($28.6 million) from financial services provider ING Italia in a bilateral project finance agreement to help set up the first of four biomethane plants in Italy. (EU-Startups)
  
• Exowatt, a solar and storage developer for data centers, raised $70 million in a mixed debt and equity round led by Felicis on the equity side and HSBC Innovation Banking on the debt side. (Exowatt)

Signals: Healthy Youth

Wanted: Financing for quality housing for youth exiting foster care. Every year, 160 or so young New Yorkers age out of the city’s foster care system. Without housing support and resources, many face homelessness, unemployment and mental health issues. A blended-finance fund could finance the development of up to 800 safe, quality and integrated homes for youth exiting foster care over five years, according to a new report. The envisioned Fair Futures Housing Fund would leverage government rental subsidies, philanthropic grants and private capital from mission-driven and impact investors. “We’ve now studied the interplay of private financing and foster-youth housing very deeply in California, Texas and now New York,” says Daniel Heimpel of Good River Partners, one of the authors of the report, “Housing justice for young people aging out of foster care in New York City,” which rounds up available subsidies.

• Youth-led housing finance. The Center for Fair Futures, a New York-based nonprofit, has assembled an advisory board with experience in New York City’s child welfare system to help develop the fund. Cheyanne Deopersaud struggled to find reliable supportive housing when she aged out of the foster care system at 19. “When I came home every night, after being a full-time student and working two jobs to sustain myself, I would find mice in my apartment,” she said. As a housing design fellow, Deopersaud expects to help manage the fund. The Biden-era Fostering Stable Housing Opportunities Act provides housing vouchers for foster youth aging out of care. Heimpel said bipartisan support for housing subsidies for foster youth can help attract private funding.
  
• Keep reading.

Agents of Impact: Follow the Talent

Gema Sancho-Minana Bertomeu, a former environmental policy consultant with the Asian Development Bank, joins GAWA Capital as an impact and technical assistance analyst…  Habitat Capital is looking for a head of lending and programs… The Aspen Institute has an opening for a West Africa chapter lead… Kaiser Permanente is on the hunt for a community and social health senior vice president in Oakland, Calif… IIX seeks a senior director of capital structuring and investment management… The Milken Institute is recruiting a director for inclusive entrepreneurship initiatives… Core Education is hiring a head of impact. 

Ownership Capital Lab will host, “NextGen investors for social impact: The power to scale employee ownership,” with Toniic’s Dipti Pratt, Leslie Rosenberg of Humanize Wealth, and Teresa Wells of AlTi Tiedemann Global, Thursday, April 24… Noramay Cadena and Shayna Harris of Supply Change Capital, Catalyst Fund’s Maelis Carraro, and Heading for Change’s Natalie Shriber will join Audrey Selian of Artha Networks for a virtual discussion on unlocking capital for climate and gender impact, Thursday, April 24.

👉 View (or post) impact investing jobs on ImpactAlpha’s Career Hub.

Thank you for your impact!

– April 23, 2025