Greenjoules raises ₹150 crore led by Amazon funds, plus a ₹100 crore TDB loan, to turn crop residue into renewable diesel

Pune-based renewable fuels company Greenjoules has raised ₹150 crore in a Series B round co-led by two Amazon vehicles, the Smbhav Venture Fund and the Climate Pledge Fund. It has also secured a separate ₹100 crore loan from the Technology Development Board (TDB) under the Department of Science and Technology. Together that comes to ₹250 crore of new financing, reported on 11-12 November 2026.

Zerodha's investment arm Rainmatter and Singularity's Strategic Autonomy Fund also joined the equity round. Blue Ashva Capital, which led Greenjoules' Series A in 2021, remains the largest shareholder. Outlets have converted the equity round to between about $16 million and $16.8 million, depending on the exchange rate used.

(A few reports describe the ₹150 crore as including the TDB loan. Most coverage, including Entrackr and Business Standard, treats the loan as separate, which gives the ₹250 crore total.)

The plant: 200,000 litres of biocrude a day

The money is meant for a facility at Khed City near Pune. It is designed to produce 200,000 litres of biocrude a day from agricultural waste. Construction is planned in phases starting in 2027.

Greenjoules, founded in 2018, uses its own process to turn agricultural residue into biocrude, an energy-dense intermediate oil. The biocrude is then refined into renewable diesel. The company has said it plans to expand later into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and green hydrogen.

Why biocrude is the interesting part

India's earlier biofuel push was built largely on first-generation ethanol made from sugarcane and grain, which is blended into petrol. That route has two well-known limits. It competes with food and water use, and it does little for diesel, the fuel that powers India's trucks, tractors, generators and much of its industry.

Turning agricultural residue such as stalks, husks and straw into a crude-like oil addresses both. The feedstock is a waste stream, not a food crop. And because the output is a hydrocarbon intermediate rather than an alcohol, it can be upgraded into drop-in fuels such as renewable diesel and potentially aviation fuels, subject to fuel specifications, approvals and application-specific blending rules.

Residue also comes with a public-health dimension. Every autumn, burning of crop stubble in north India's rice-wheat belt sends smoke over the Indo-Gangetic plain and contributes to the region's winter air-quality crisis. Any technology that gives farmers a buyer for residue is, in effect, also an air-quality intervention. That only works, though, if collection logistics and prices make selling straw more attractive than burning it.

The investors' logic

The make-up of the round shows how Greenjoules is being positioned:

• Amazon's two funds cover two angles. The Smbhav Venture Fund backs Indian businesses, and the Climate Pledge Fund invests in technologies that can help decarbonise operations like Amazon's own. Logistics-heavy companies are among the most obvious future buyers of renewable diesel.
• Rainmatter has built a portfolio around climate, agriculture and rural livelihoods. It recently also backed altM, another start-up that turns crop residue into higher-value products.
• Singularity's Strategic Autonomy Fund frames its investments around reducing India's import dependence. India imports most of the crude oil it uses, so domestic liquid fuels from domestic waste fit that thesis.
• TDB's ₹100 crore loan gives the company long-term, low-cost debt for plant construction, the stage where deep-tech manufacturing ventures most often run short of capital. The loan supports scale-up alongside the equity funding.

What has to go right

A 200,000-litre-a-day plant is a big step for any first-of-a-kind process, and several things will decide whether Khed City works:

1. Feedstock supply. Agricultural residue is seasonal, bulky and spread across many small farms. Reliable year-round collection, storage and pricing is often harder than the chemistry itself.
2. Scale-up performance. Conversion yields and uptime that work at pilot scale have to hold at commercial scale.
3. Offtake and policy. Renewable diesel and SAF compete with fossil fuels on price. Long-term purchase agreements, blending mandates or carbon incentives will shape the economics. India has signalled SAF blending targets for international flights later this decade, which could create a market for the company's planned jet-fuel expansion.
4. Phasing. With construction starting only in 2027, commercial volumes are some years away, and the company will have to hold investor and lender confidence through that period.

Why it matters

India needs low-carbon liquid fuels for sectors that will not electrify soon, including heavy freight, agriculture, aviation and backup power. Greenjoules is betting that the answer can come from the residue India's farms already produce, processed in Indian plants with home-grown technology. If the Khed City facility reaches its design output, it would be one of the larger advanced-biofuel projects in the country and a reference case for financing first-of-a-kind energy plants with a mix of strategic corporate equity and public debt.

Sources

• https://entrackr.com/news/greenjoules-raises-rs-150-cr-in-series-b-led-by-amazon-funds-secures-rs-100-cr-loan-from-tdb-12801123
• https://www.business-standard.com/companies/news/greenjoules-raises-150-crore-in-series-b-round-to-expand-renewable-fuels-126111101448_1.html
• https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/greenjoules-amazon-smbhav-500799
• https://india.entrepreneur.com/business-news/greenjoules-raises-inr-150-cr-series-b-secures-inr-100-cr-tdb-loan
• https://biofuelsdigest.com/greenjoules-raises-16-8-million-to-expand-renewable-fuel-production/
• https://startuptalky.com/news/daily-indian-funding-roundup-key-news-12-november-2026/