🌍 Where Climate Meets Deep Tech — And You Fit Right In 🚀

​About

​India's climate and deep-tech sectors are booming, but they need seasoned business leaders to drive growth. This event is for senior professionals in sales, commercial, and operator roles who are ready to make a real-world impact.

​Join us for an evening of casual conversations with founders and leaders who have successfully made the leap. Learn how your skills are directly transferable to high-growth areas like biotech, alternative foods, energy, mobility, etc. 

​Why attend?

• ​Discover the real career pathways at the climate–deep tech nexus

• ​Learn from operators who've made the leap into climate and impact-driven startups

• ​Meet mission-driven founders in need of your skills & scale experience

​Curated for

• ​Business professionals (Sales, Marketing, GTM) keen to know more about climate-tech

• ​Seasoned leaders from industrial backgrounds and with an itch to build from scratch

• ​Founders seeking operator-allies for rapid growth

​Agenda

• ​6-6:30pm : Anchor speakers sharing their stories

• ​6:30-7pm : Rapid fire introductions of all participants

• ​7-8pm: Casual networking over snacks and drinks

​This is an invite-only event with limited seats. Please register to share your interest.

​Speakers

​Ezhil Subbian serves as the CEO of String. As one of the world leaders in gas fermentation, String’s proprietary platform enables biomanufacturing of sustainable ingredients from greenhouse gases, for sectors fundamental to living including, food, agriculture and environment. Prior to String, Ezhil played key roles in biobased product innovation at different early-stage companies in the Silicon Valley ecosystem. Building on her experience over the last 20 years in biobased product commercialization and market growth, Ezhil’s drive is to leverage the technology prowess of the west and the manufacturing capabilities of the east to develop sustainable innovations that can have global impact.

​Bharath Bakaraju is the Founder and CEO of Phyx44. He is a product and technology leader with 15+ years of experience across ed-tech, ad-tech, and deep-tech innovation. Bharath has driven scalable, global consumer internet solutions for millions of users and drove strategic growth in global organizations. He is now channeling technical expertise and passion for sustainability into founding Phyx44 to do pioneering climate-focused biotechnology for making animal & planet friendly smart proteins. Bharath holds an Integrated M.S degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow.

​Suruchi Rao is a bioprocess engineer from ICT Mumbai and the Co‑Founder & CEO of Ossus Biorenewables, a deep-tech company transforming industrial wastewater into green hydrogen via proprietary biomaterials. Under her leadership, Ossus has scaled operations from pilot to commercial sites, delivering 5 tonnes/day of green hydrogen and securing industrial offtake. Suruchi now leads Ossus into building modular hydrogen plants and expanding biomaterial applications—pioneering a future where biology underpins sustainable energy and circular industries.

​Varij Saurabh brings over two decades of global experience at the intersection of sustainability, technology, and start-ups. He has led strategy, product development, and go-to-market efforts with a strong focus on aligning innovation with business growth. After building B2B SaaS products for some of the leading startups in India he moved to deeptech startup – Openwater. Varij holds multiple US patents, reflecting his deep expertise in applied data science. An alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, he is passionate about scaling technology-driven businesses that create lasting value in sustainable and emerging industries.

​Ashish Paradkar is a seasoned Industrial Biotechnology & Sustainability Leader, having held various global leadership roles at Novozymes, DuPont, P&G, and two start-ups (Verenium Inc., and Perfect Day). He received his Ph.D. (Microbial Genetics) and completed his postdoctoral studies, both in Canada. Currently, he is an Independent Advisor supporting Biotech Start-ups, Non-profits, and VC firms His current assignments include, Senior Advisor (Bioengineering) at Solena Materials (UK), Mentor at Good Foods Institute (GFI), and Ontario Genomics (Canada), and Consultant at two start-ups.

​🎤 Our Hosts

​​​Beyond Next Ventures is an early-stage deep-tech venture capital firm with presence in Japan and India. We are driven by our mission to enable exceptional entrepreneurs solving global challenges for healthier populace and a happier planet. Founded in 2014, we made over 80 investments across both countries. ​​With a portfolio of 16 companies in India, we typically lead investments in seed and pre-series A stage deep-tech startups. Our primary focus areas include healthcare, sustainability, and digital infrastructure.

​Euforbia is a boutique search firm building for Climate in India. We specialize in hiring leadership teams for post PMF firms, helping accelerate our Planet’s transition to net zero.

​The Sustainability Mafia (SusMafia) is a founder-led nonprofit catalyzing India’s climate innovation ecosystem. They work across startups, universities, corporates, and capital providers to accelerate meaningful climate action — through programs like SusVentures, Mafioso, Climate Ninja, and our flagship convening, SusCrunch.

​This is a side event for SusCrunch 2025.

​SusCrunch is India's boldest climate collaboration summit - where climate founders, investors, and corporates gather to forge partnerships and scale climate solutions — with the spirit of a festival.