SINGAPORE —  Zurich-based Una Terra Venture Capital Fund has brought on The Shed 28 co-founders Ranjit Jathanna and Rupen Desai to lead comms and marketing respectively, in an effort to elevate both companies’ expertise and abilities in fighting climate change.

Jathanna and Desai, who have been named CCO and CMO, will continue to run TS/28, a Singapore-based purposeful growth company they co-founded in 2019.

TS/28 works with companies such as Unilever’s Elida Beauty, Johnson & Johnson Vision, Copenhagen Cartel (upcycling ocean waste into a global movement), and Zespri (accelerating the sustainability growth journey). TS/28 also handled marketing around Dole Sunshine Company’s purpose-driven business transformation.

Jathanna, a former Edelman and MullenLowe chief strategy officer, and Desai (pictured), formerly Dole Sunshine’s global CMO, will also serve as venture partners in Una Terra. The €200 million impact-focused fund is focused on preserving the climate and biodiversity by  investing and scaling up sustainable technologies that generate measurable social and environmental impact alongside financial returns.

“We want to build businesses our conscience can live with and a world where people, planet, and prosperity thrive interdependently — never one at the cost of another. In the battle against climate change and loss of biodiversity, how we deploy financial capital will play a huge role,” Desai said.

“Our goal is to build on this mission, so the Una Terra platform extends beyond Impact Capital into a movement that scales sustainable technologies, education and inspiration, and planetary leadership development. We also want the Fund to facilitate additional capital and blended finance, optimistic activism, and, potentially, a foundation to create systemic change that aligns with the purpose of our company, our own personal purpose,” he said.