In his 2022 letter to CEOs, Larry Fink wrote – ” The next 1000 unicorns won’t be search engines or social media companies, they’ll be sustainable, scalable innovators…..” Indeed, with growing climate change concerns and every country adopting a ‘Net Zero’ target, it has become crucial to bring technologies to the table that will help them achieve that. Apart from decarbonization, which is the essence of Net Zero, we will also need to innovate in other aspects of business and economy in order to achieve a holistic improvement in our footprint.
While the West may be leading the race for innovation, India is not planning to sit behind to ‘adopt’ those technologies. Indian youth already have some ideas up their sleeves too. Take a look at these startups that may just have the potential to disrupt, either through their technologies, business models or ability to act on opportunities.
1. Graviky Labs
Key words: Carbon capture. Pollution to Ink. Decarbonization.
While the West may be An MIT spin-off, this Bengaluru-based firm is converting air pollution into ink. Through their carbon sequestration technology, they capture carbon emissions from the atmosphere and convert it into high quality ink under their AIR-INK registered trademark. Not only this, they are also powering a jet by replacing its fossil fuel with zero emission Air Fuel. They have already partnered with big companies like Pangaia, Dell, Mastercard and Heineken. Captured carbon has important industrial uses – some of them being in inks, fuel and plastics- and is also seen as the only practical way to deep decarbonize the sector, according to the Centre for Climate and Energy Solutions, USA. Helping companies achieve carbon offsets and finding new applications for their technology, this startup is definitely running the right path to Net Zero.
Website : https://www.graviky.com/
2. WasteLink
Key words: Food waste. Circularity. Animal feed. Upcycle
Every year millions-of-tonnes of food is wasted across India. Waste is abundant in resources and this one company was not going to let that go to waste (was that a pun?). It realised that there was a deficit in feed supply in India and did not waste time grabbing this opportunity (sorry that was the last time i’ll be using the word ‘waste’). It collects left-overs and excess food from every part of the supply chain, be it at the farm stage or unsold retail, and processes it into animal feed. They also have a zero-landfill commitment ensuring that the purchased food is diverted completely. Providing services to food producers and ingredients to feed manufacturers, the founders perceive the business model can be scaled many multiples of x.
Website : https://wastelink.co/
3. Uravu Labs
Key words: Renewable. Water from Air.
Air holds more freshwater than all of the world’s rivers combined and this startup draws water from this inexhaustible resource. No, this is not Reverse Osmosis. The company has engineered their own technology which does not waste a drop of water in the process of conversion. Further understanding the importance of clean energy, this technology is powered by solar and biomass – truly renewable. The growing problem of water scarcity due to irregular patterns of precipitation can be effectively tackled through this solution so potential opportunities for scaling the infrastructure must be utilised. They recently launched the 100% Renewable Water bottles in the market and are now available at the cafes in Bangalore.
Website : https://www.uravulabs.com
4. Tvasta
Key words: 3D printing. Construction. Deep-tech.
Tvasta developed a 3D printing technology for the construction industry. A special type of concrete, which is partly made using recycled concrete aggregates, is used as the raw material. The first home built using this technique stands at the IIT Madras Campus, Chennai. Since then, the company has been involved in building the Ananta Śiras – a complex monument marking the 75th Jubilee of India Cements at Tamil Nadu, and a modular site office for a public company. The benefits that accrue from this include shortened time for completion (from years to days), reduced construction wastage and lower carbon footprint. The construction industry is a significant contributor to air pollution and this could be the key to solving that problem. Do you think this could also substantially bring down construction and housing costs?
Website : https://tvasta.construction/
It will be interesting to see how each of these startups develop further. In the same letter, Larry Fink also states that there has never been more capital available to bring new ideas to reality. Investors will need to assess such opportunities and act on them fast because this is just the beginning of a new revolution in innovation and tech.
