Top Green Startups in India: Inspiring Stories for a ‘Greenr’ Future
Entrepreneurship in India is at an all-time high, particularly in the post-COVID era. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) India Report for FY 2021-22, India’s entrepreneurial activity rate jumped from 5.3% in 2020 to 14.4% in 2021, reflecting the growing percentage of adults (aged 18-64) starting or running new businesses. As of January 2024, India is home to over 112,718 recognized startups, making it the third-largest startup ecosystem globally, with 111 unicorns valued at $350+ billion.
What Are Green Startups?
Several factors have contributed to the growing number of startups, including youth entrepreneurship and education initiatives like the Entrepreneurship Mindset Curriculum in Delhi government schools, government support through schemes like Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) and the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE). Corporates are also making valuable contributions through corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Government initiatives like Startup India and Make in India have created a supportive ecosystem for startups by offering funding, mentorship, and regulatory support.
These initiatives have served as a catalyst for a new age of eco-conscious and responsible entrepreneurs leading India’s green entrepreneurship future. However, despite these encouraging numbers and trends, green businesses face unique challenges. They must navigate immature markets, the gap between consumers’ intentions to buy eco-friendly products and their actual purchase, close competition with multinational fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs), limited access to finance, and difficulties in quantifying environmental impact.
Why Support Green Startups in India?
Despite the hurdles mentioned above, the optimism for green entrepreneurship in India remains inspiring. On Global Entrepreneurship Week (November 18-24), we highlight a few startups supported by TechnoServe’s Greenr Sustainability Accelerator program in partnership with the IKEA Foundation and the Visa Foundation.
Let’s examine the challenges these startups faced and how Greenr helped them overcome these obstacles through strategic actions akin to careful Jenga block moves.
5 Inspiring Green Startups Making an Impact
1. Brisil – Turning Rice Husk Ash into Eco-Friendly Silica
What if we told you that rice husk ash can be transformed to produce precipitated and highly dispersible silica? What’s that, you ask?
With patented technology, Brisil Technologies, founded by Tanmay Pandya, addresses the problem of rice husk ash utilization for tires, rubber products, footwear, paint, toothpaste, food, and other industries. This bio-silica helps customers reduce their carbon emissions and achieve their sustainability targets. The company licenses technology to rice husk ash-generating firms, thereby creating revenue by selling the plant and licensing the technology.
Problem Statements Addressed by Greenr
- Positive working capital flow creation: Brisil faced working capital challenges, which are common in the upcycling industry. They were competing against larger traditional silica producers and struggled with long credit cycles of up to 150 days that tied up capital, hindering growth and production capacity. To resolve this, Greenr Business Advisor Ayan Bhattacharya helped identify and create the distribution model for Brisil, which helped Tanmay onboard several traditional distributors from allied chemical industries. These distributors received discounted bio-silica in exchange for upfront payments, allowing Brisil to bypass the lengthy credit cycles. By unlocking capital, Brisil streamlined production processes, expanded capacity, and initiated trial batch production for large companies. This enabled them to secure contracts with global sportswear and tire manufacturers, resulting in over 600% revenue growth in 2024-25!
- Unprecedented Business Growth: Tanmay faced challenges with large corporates due to capital constraints and longer trial phases. Greenr helped Brisil develop a targeted strategy focusing on high-end brands to expand their customer base. After identifying key players in various sectors, they used the capital flow creation approach (mentioned above) for successful deal closures, seamless R&D, and trials. Trial purchase orders with top global footwear brands and Indian tire manufacturers, including Adidas and CEAT, are currently in the pipeline. Brisil has seen an increase in its production capacity utilization from 45% to 100% since December 2023, boosting average monthly revenue 10x from April 2023 to August 2024!
- Market Expansion: Greenr partnered with Brisil to create a trading agreement. In June 2024, a vertical partnership with a leading Indian distributor of specialty chemicals facilitated the onboarding of renowned Indian and international clients in the chemical and paint industry. They also registered with Reich in July 2024, which helped expand Brisil’s geographical and sectoral reach in the European Union and Schengen markets. Sharing his experience about the strategic support offered by the program, Tanmay says, “We received tremendous support from our business advisor Ayan, specifically in… fundraising, hiring and taking some strategic calls. He also helped us in finding the people who can help in addressing these challenges, which propagated our scale-up journey faster.”
2. RCube Recycling – Circular Economy for Printer Cartridges
Have we ever considered the fate of used printer cartridges and toners, particularly their impact on our progressively fragile environment? For many of us, this thought would have never crossed our minds. Well, luckily for us, it did for someone—Ravi Ravariya, the founder of RCube Recycling. A student of commerce, his passion for waste management led him to establish RCube in 2019.
From their production to their disposal, toners and cartridges release Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) that take centuries to decompose in landfills. RCube helps recycle these and more; this includes the toner powder, too, which, when incinerated, produces massive fumes.
Problem Statements Addressed by Greenr
- Market Expansion & Linkages: To engage with corporates and governments, Greenr revamped their sales model by creating a corporate pitch deck and refining their customer value proposition with the Green Reengineering Model (GRM). The GRM involves a circular transaction; corporates give their used cartridges to RCube, who recycle it and resell the same to the corporates at a more affordable price. Greenr also developed a detailed costing model to guide pricing strategy and connected the founder with corporates and large MSMEs for pilot projects. They already have one successful pilot underway with a major Indian chemicals manufacturer, adding over INR 10 lakhs ( $11,847 USD) to R-Cube’s current annual recurring revenue.
- Fundraising: For the Mumbai Roadshow, hosted in April 2024, Greenr helped create an investor pitch deck and worked with Ravi to enhance his storytelling skills to effectively communicate his business’s impact. RCube garnered interest from six fund houses at the roadshow.
- Financial compliance and more robust MIS: The team at Greenr assisted RCube in instituting an MIS to track various aspects of its business, critically coming together to ensure efficient resource usage, ROI, and more. To further improve their data tracking on the product front, they were introduced to another business from Greenr’s first cohort, Satma CE, a traceability software designed to eliminate greenwashing in the supply chain.
Speaking about his experience with the program, Ravi shares, “Team Greenr has helped me in getting the green audit done, getting in touch with the corporates… and helping us connect with many companies and startups. Anurag (Senior Business Advisor, Team Greenr) is an integral part of our team.”
3. Plastroots – Zero-Landfill Waste Solutions
Plastroots, founded in 2019 by Kapil Jangale, is a waste management company specializing in comprehensive dry waste solutions and training programs to help rural communities minimize their carbon footprint. The company promotes sustainable garbage disposal and advocates for a circular economy. By adopting organized waste management systems, it addresses the lack of structured waste management in rural areas, where around 75% of waste goes unsorted.
Headquartered in Nagpur, it serves various sectors, including local and national governments, industries, and commercial enterprises by providing pragmatic, cost-effective, and compliant solutions.
Problem Statements Addressed by Greenr
- Building a strong pipeline for EPR compliance: A deliberate approach to creating a solid pipeline for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) compliance services was carried out by growing the team and refining the strategy. Kishore Athota, Greenr’s business advisor, was instrumental in developing the plan and forming a dedicated EPR compliance team. Within 12 months, the company generated over ₹3 crore ($355,311) in revenue (and counting) from EPR compliance initiatives. In addition to this, the firm is also working on a ‘Plastic Neutrality Program’ focusing on Singapore, Indonesia, USA, and Canada. Greenr also helped Plastroots secure working capital to fuel business expansion, establish a data analytics team to streamline operations, improve decision-making, and aid the investigation into invoice discounting. This resulted in a significant growth in overall business by 5x. Currently, they are also working on strengthening their supply chain.
- Expansion of Business Verticals: A direct collaboration with two major cement manufacturers was formed to provide Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF). Key contributions included assisting with the development of the business model and strategy for waste material delivery, as well as recruiting and developing a core team to oversee operations. This resulted in collaborations with Ambuja and Birla Cement, which allowed for the direct delivery of four types of waste materials. In addition, the company has successfully expanded its activities within Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan.
Talking about the support offered to his business, Kapil shares, “The program has helped us in understanding the various aspects of our business including team building, interventions, capacity building and business expansion. Our business advisor, Kishore, has also helped us in funding, building the various blocks of our business and more.”
4. Ekam Eco – Waterless Sanitation Solutions
Ekam Eco, a participant of the Greenr Sustainability Accelerator Program’s Cohort 1 who also pitched on Shark Tank India’s Season 3, focuses on developing sustainable sanitation technologies and solutions to conserve water and convert waste into resources using natural means. Their range of products includes waterless urinals, natural cleaning solutions, and sewage treatment solutions.
As the sixth goal in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), access to clean water and sanitation is one of the primary human needs for health and well-being. Per a report by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, the world is nearing a global water disaster as the hydrological cycle has gone out of balance for the first time in human history. If not acted upon, nations like India, China, and parts of Europe with high populations and agricultural activities are at high risk.
Problem Statements Addressed by Greenr
- Sales and Marketing Efforts: Greenr helped the founders focus on natural care solutions and Zerodor (their waterless urinals) directed at big-volume customers. A scalable go-to-market (GTM) plan was established for each customer category, to increase revenue by at least 30%. Greenr Business Advisor Kishore Athota collaborated closely with the sales teams to develop and implement a complete GTM plan and a sales funnel system, which the team now actively uses to streamline their sales process. Kishore led a one-day sales session for the sales and founding teams to further empower the team, improving their abilities and aligning them with the new strategy. As a result of these efforts, Ekam Eco’s revenues have increased by 30% in the last six months, with overall business growth of 45% in the past year.
- Fundraise and explore M&A: The team secured a strategic partnership, unlocking capital for scaling efforts. Greenr supported them with access to working capital, positioning the company for future fundraising. During the Mumbai Investor Roadshow, Greenr introduced the founders to a curated list of 30-40 investors, enhancing fundraising readiness. They also assisted in structuring a joint venture with Euronics, where product trials are underway.
Sharing his experience with the program, Uttam Banerjee, Founder of Ekam Eco, says, “We have gained a lot of insights, feedback, mentoring, support, and guidance related to what will and won’t work (for our business), how to reach out to people, scale up, and plan for the years to come through multiple levels of interactions (with Greenr).”
5. Stonesoup – Sustainable Menstrual Products
StoneSoup, a social enterprise based in Bengaluru, is transforming menstrual health and sustainability by creating jobs for women and promoting periods that are shame-free, trash-free, rash-free, and cash-free. The company offers patented reusable menstrual cups and washable cloth pads, alongside menstrual health education, to empower individuals and provide livelihood opportunities for female tailors.
Problem Statements Addressed by Greenr
- Strategy for Online/ Offline Sales: In FY 23-24, a targeted approach to B2B client expansion drove a 30% revenue increase, reaching INR 0.8 Crore. Some key initiatives that led to this expansion included the (i) online marketplace presence with three new platforms, (ii) adding two offline channels, and (iii) establishing five new corporate partnerships. To enhance customer retention, new products were launched, including baby and adult diapers, now available at Organic World’s 10 outlets. Greenr business advisor Monica Muthappa facilitated strategic partnerships with Motherhood Hospitals, and government tenders were pursued by reducing the cost of menstrual cups by 35%. Additional CSR collaborations with Saahas Zero Waste, Bodhi Tree, Go Colours, Shahi Exports, and Infosys Foundation further broadened Stonesoup’s brand impact. New marketplace listings on Nykaa, Myntra, and ONDC positioned the brand for greater visibility and customer reach, aligning with our mission for sustainable growth.
- Strategy for Online Marketing: The team saw a 30% increase in social media followers, driving brand visibility and generating valuable corporate leads. This was a result of Stonesoup hiring a social media manager and onboarding an agency for Amazon branding. Simultaneously, they also strengthened their LinkedIn outreach to corporate clients, complemented by planned workshops and gifting initiatives aimed at deepening corporate relationships. The increase in their social media followers also led to StoneSoup acquiring three more corporate clients.
Speaking about her association with the program, Rupal Ralph, CEO, Stonesoup, says, “The Greenr program was an eye-opener for us. When we were going all over the place, it helped us to focus on our strength. The one-on-one mentorship helped us in thinking out of the box.”
(People who menstruate: Are you still on the fence about making a switch to cloth pads and menstrual cups? This video might help.)
How TechnoServe Supports Green Entrepreneurs
TechnoServe’s Greenr Sustainability Accelerator program, supported by the IKEA Foundation and Visa Foundation, is dedicated to scaling green startups on a mission to drive environmental action. It offers them capacity-building, business modeling, go-to-market strategy development, and access to finance.
FAQs
What’s on your mind?
What are green startups?
Green startups are businesses focused on creating products or services that promote environmental sustainability. They aim to reduce environmental impact through practices like recycling, renewable energy, and eco-friendly materials.
How many green startups are there in India?
The green startup ecosystem in India has been rapidly growing, with hundreds of startups working in areas such as clean energy, waste management, sustainable agriculture, and water conservation.
What challenges do green startups in India face?
Green startups often face challenges related to funding, market access, and competition with established industries. Educating consumers and building a customer base for sustainable products can also be difficult.
