Anu Sridharan is a climate tech entrepreneur with impressive work in improving urban water management in India. Sridharan holds a Master’s degree from the Civil and Environmental Engineering program at the University of California, Berkeley, where her research focused on optimizing piped network systems in developing economies.
She co-founded NextDrop, a social enterprise aimed at addressing the challenges of erratic water supply in urban areas. NextDrop provided real-time information to residents about water availability through SMS alerts, enabling them to plan accordingly. NextDrop’s innovative approach received significant attention, including features in Forbes and a TED Talk by Anu Sridharan titled “When will I get my water next?”
After leading NextDrop for over eight years, Sridharan took her expertise to other startups to help them scale their growth and impact. She currently works with SciSpace to lead partnerships and growth. Their mission is to make science more open, collaborative, and democratized. In December 2024, Sridharan launched “Climate Foresight: Signals and Trends Vol 1,” a newsletter series aiming to explore potential future scenarios in climate technology.