Terra.do, a global climate career platform with the goal of putting 100 million people to work in the field by 2030, has closed a $5 million seed round. The round was led by Avaana Capital, a $150 million climate-focused fund, and included participation from SIG, the TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, Precursor, BEENEXT, City Light, Hummingbird Firm, and Avesta.

With participation from 150 businesses and individuals from a dozen countries, the capital round augmented standard VC fundraising. MCJ Collective, E8 Angels, C3, and Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs were among them, as were individuals such as Albert Wenger (founder of Union Square Ventures), David Helgason (founder of Unity), and others.

Completing the round were investments from more than 50 Terra.do alumni, ranging from farmers who run the Terra.do Climate Farm School to former oil and gas executives making clean-energy transitions and activist shareholders who shook up ExxonMobil’s board.

The platform has also announced the release of its mobile app, which provides access to climate professionals and hiring managers at leading climate tech firms, allowing for direct contact between climate businesses and potential employees. Users can also apply for the platform's climate fellowships using the app.

“The time is now and the climate crisis is not waiting, nor will it fix itself,” said Anshuman Bapna, co-founder and CEO of Terra.do. “We are on the precipice of real change both the industry and talent have woken up to the impacts of the crisis and the hard work that is required. Opportunities abound in every corner of the world and within every aspect of society."

“The climate crisis will require every aspect of our economy to transform and incorporate sustainability, resulting in the emergence of the climate economy. The current talent funnel for climate- and sustainability-trained professionals is broken, creating a large gap that will need to be filled at internet scale. Terra.do’s app and integrated approach, combining learning and jobs and empowered by a strongly engaged community, will enable better outcomes and help each one of us become a climate worker," said Anjali Bansal, founder and chairperson of Avaana Capital.

The app allows climate tech hiring managers to host huddles, run Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) forums, and engage in conversations with users. Prospective employees can bypass the process of finding and blindly applying to jobs on typical job boards. Meanwhile, companies can build their employer brands and evangelise their climate solutions within the Terra.do ecosystem, all while increasing community awareness of the rapidly evolving landscape.

Several thousand mid-career professionals from 25 countries have completed the company’s cohort-based learning programmes, ranging from complete climate landscape overviews to deep dives into venture capital investing in climate, climate-resilient agriculture, and more.

Terra.do is a global climate career platform founded in 2020 by Anshuman Bapna, Dr. Kamal Kapadia, and Mayank Jain. The platform brings together a wide-ranging community of professionals from critical climate industries such as energy, mobility, and regenerative agriculture and top experts in areas such as policy, science, and finance.