The inspiration for Calculus Carbon has roots in Neelesh's early career experience in Infrastructure & Real Assets, working as an investment banker in a boutique shop, to raise institutional financing for large scale, long duration and asset-heavy businesses in sectors such as Telecom, Roads, Hospitality, and Power. While working subsequently managing assets for a $1.2 B fund in industrial real estate (logistics parks), he further picked up nuances around evaluating investments in individual assets while managing the risks at the portfolio level.

Fast forward to 2022, Neelesh was approached personally for support in raising financing for a large-scale regenerative agriculture project, helping reduce methane emissions in rice ecosystems. Getting up to speed on the workings of carbon markets to direct financing towards large-scale nature-based solutions (NbS), with each "asset" providing a bouquet of ecosystem services including carbon sequestration, food security, local employment opportunities, among others (read SDGs), there were similarities in the way each NbS project could be evaluated for investment as in any infrastructure or real asset project.

With a long operating life (typically 20-30 years), a large corresponding area (>5000 hectares), and subsequently a large investment requirement per project ($5-10M), each NbS project has many underlying features of an infrastructure project such as a road, commercial real estate, or a power plant. No wonder, forests are frequently being referred to as natural infrastructure.