Tag: Climate Action

Hosted by ACT, UnHerd brings you the unheard stories of individuals who are challenging conventional principles to disrupt the social impact landscape. From social entrepreneurs to venture philanthropists, dive into real-world conversations on what they’ve experienced and learned about changing the status quo.

In our latest episode, we welcome Amrit Om Nayak (Co-Founder, Indra Water) who speaks with Sruthi Shanmugam (Manager, ACT For Environment) about leveraging technology to tackle India’s water crisis, collaborating with industry giants like Tata and Unilever, and unlocking new ways to make water treatment both economically and environmentally viable.

Listen to this episode on our Spotify channel or watch the conversation on YouTube.

Sruthi: Hello folks and welcome to the eighth episode of UnHerd, a podcast hosted by ACT that delves into the extraordinary stories of individuals who are challenging conventional principles to disrupt India’s social impact landscape. 

Water, one of our planet’s most precious resources, is being pushed to the brink. Did you know that 54% of India is classified as water stressed? This means over half of our country is grappling with severe water scarcity, yet we often take this resource for granted. In fact, 74% of water and 81% of sewage in India goes untreated, with industries frequently releasing harmful forever-chemicals into water bodies, which is further complicating the challenge. 

Our guest today is someone who is working tirelessly to address these challenges. Amrit, the co-founder of Indra Water, is leading the charge on wastewater treatment, developing a technology that not only reduces water wastage, but also tackles those difficult to remove forever-chemicals. Under Amrit’s leadership, Indra has saved over 2.5 billion litres of water and reduced greenhouse gas emissions significantly. 

Amrit, welcome to UnHerd!

Amrit: Hi Sruthi, thank you so much for having me on the podcast. It’s a real pleasure.

The spark that lit the fire: Creating the economic value of water 

Sruthi: Amrit, let’s kick things off by diving into your journey. What inspired you to focus on water treatment? Was there a specific moment or challenge that made you realise this was the problem you wanted to solve?

Amrit: I think the inspiration to work on water goes long back, because I’ve grown up in the southern part of India, in the city of Chennai. When we used to wake up early in the morning, our daily activities used to be planned around the availability of water. It was so integral to everything we did. My co-founder, his father was into the chemicals trading business. So he had been to multiple factories and seen effluents or toxins being discharged untreated into freshwater bodies. So these vivid images from our childhood kind of stayed with us. We might have taken a different path in our academic careers and in our professional careers later, where I was into automotives followed by clean energy. Same thing with my co-founder. 

But we got this opportunity to treat stormwater in Seattle. We were roommates there, we were doing our masters at the University of Washington in Seattle. And we asked ourselves that if we could recover this water using our skills in energy, that we have learned over these years, can we extend it to really bad quality toxins and dirty water? So that was the trigger point for us that got us closer to water and we felt that we could do much more than just discuss it.

Sruthi: Your solution specifically works with forever chemicals. How have you managed this specific challenge? 

Amrit: See, we are an electrically driven solution unlike many others who rely predominantly on biology or chemical usage. Now, being electrically driven allows us to do multiple reactions at the same time. We could be coagulating suspended particles inside. We could be oxidising pollutants through multiple pathways which means we could be breaking them down by pulling away their electrons. The ability to be able to modulate that as water flows through your system holds us in great stead to be able to tackle very difficult toxins. 

Now, these are carbon fluorine bonds and these are very strong generally. So if you’re able to supply the right kind of potential and make the right kind of energy available, you could pull away the electron that holds that bond together and that has helped us become very effective. So the understanding of what is the right energy utilisation for treating different water, better process control, and of course, the innovations that we have unlocked with micro-electrolysis – we call it Electrox – these have kind of helped us unlock more value in these segments, enabling water which is safer for even human consumption.  

Sruthi: Out of curiosity, in your installations, is the water used within the industries itself or are they then being distributed to water bodies where they then get accumulated and improve the water tables?  

Amrit: The first step is the use within the industry. Water body cleaning and reclamation – these are activities where at least today, economic value cannot be quantified to a great extent. Who is it actually benefiting, apart from the environmental footprint? But when you are talking about industrial process reuse, there is a clear economic value which can be quantified.  

So it has got to start with this and it’s already happening. A lot of players in North India, Western parts of India and Southern India are already doing it and Eastern part of India will also join in because they are the bulk users when it comes to mining industry, steel industry and all that, where there can be huge impact.

Once we enter into that phase, where industrial process reuse has become mainstream, that’s when you have more water available for domestic use cases and sewage treatment. So industry comes first, because there is a business continuity case here, there is an economic value case here, followed by sewage treatment. Because if you are going to tap all the pollutants and ensure that the water is not going out, your water bodies are anyway going to start becoming better. 

Sruthi: I think you’ve had tremendous success working with marquee clients like Unilever and Tata and your technology has been implemented in various industries, right? Could you share a story or an example of how your solution has created real impact for your clients?

Amrit: I think one of the interesting parts of our journey is the first five years, where we were actually working with much smaller clients. Companies which have a much smaller balance sheet and where the requirement for water was much lower. And these customers were textile customers, they were customers in the food production area, they were customers in the pharmaceutical area. Now, working with these customers actually helped us understand that our product could be deployed either standalone, it could be combined with existing technologies, and more importantly even customer personnel – people at the ground level there could be trained to work with us and respond to different situations with our deployed water assets. Now that builds a certain kind of confidence not just in the product but also builds a confidence in our ability to control the performance of assets over a period of time. 

Now, there is a very unique use case with a textile customer and it’s a garment washing facility. We have been doing a very tricky wastewater [intervention] which has a lot of surfactants. Now at this facility, we have managed to recover almost every drop of water for reuse. It has either been used in industrial processes or it has been used for other non-portable activities like flushing or irrigation or even floor washing. So not a single drop of water is actually being wasted at that facility. And all this has been achieved with the help of the customer where they have also risen up to the challenge and worked with us. 

Our end customers include the likes of Unilever, Tata, and the Aditya Birla Group. All of these customers are important from the perspective of a recurring pattern of requirement across their businesses. So for Indra, progressing from these smaller customers to the larger ones has been very natural. And it has also helped build successful use cases, which can be applied to these larger use cases. 

First principle lens: The role of water treatment in business continuity

Sruthi: Thank you for sharing that story, Amrit. Water is a very complex space, right? Especially water treatment. And again, with industrial waste water, it unfortunately doesn’t have a direct economic value attached to it. Can you talk us through how you’ve tackled this mindset, how have you created adoption for your solutions in an environment where water is often undervalued?

Amrit: So I agree with you Sruthi. Water as a resource has been extremely undervalued and we have taken it for granted. We do not associate a monetary value with it because we get it almost for free most of the time. But it is critical to understand that water is not just important for our daily activities but it’s important for business continuity. 

A lot of the critical products that we use in our daily [lives] consume huge quantities of water [to manufacture]. So it was first important to understand that any disruption to water availability could impact businesses by not allowing them to continue production. The other part to understand is the economic value of water. Like, what if water is not available? What’s a value that can be attached to the downtime of your factory? Is there a value that can be attached to non-compliance or is there a value that can be attached to having to purchase more water at a higher cost? I think we are at a crossroads today where all of these questions have become really pertinent. It was important for us to go to our customers and help them understand that this is not just an activity you’re doing for the environment, nor is it just for compliance, but it actually makes business sense.

To use water and then treat it and reuse it at the point of source is actually an economically viable activity which can result in tremendous savings. It can also help them reduce the dependence on a centralised resource. Over a period of time, our customers have really come to see it. We have been able to demonstrate it with pilots and then with commercial systems. And the acceptance rate has significantly gone up. And we intend to continue on this path where we are going to spread more awareness. We are going to help them reuse more water and more importantly we are going to help them understand that industrial water does not need the highest quality fresh water. It could be done with treated water and freshwater should be left for human consumption, which is essential for life.

There are also a few new standards which have kicked in, which talk about minimum reuse for bulk users. The government has recently mandated that bulk users need to reuse at least 50% of the water. So that helps, because then they’re talking about offsetting freshwater demand and also reducing water pollution downstream because there aren’t enough centralised facilities which can deal with that. Further, there are policies around what is the minimum water generated by your facility versus the sewage treatment plant that you need to put up. So the government mandates that if you are generating more than a certain quantity of wastewater you compulsorily need to have that. So these things are egging people along and the compliance is becoming stronger. 

But what we lack in India, is differential pricing. Today water is priced only on volume.  Somebody like a textile plant which has about 10x lower pollutant load but generates 10x higher volume of water is charged higher than a pharmaceutical company which generates a very small quantity but with a very highly concentrated polluted load. So people should be charged on the basis of a volume slag based on consumption and they should be charged on the difficulty in treatment based on the pollutants or toxins that they are generating.  

Sruthi: Do you think the policy landscape is taking that turn right now? Do you see any early emerging trends toward that or is it more in the long future and not the near future?

Amrit: I think the first steps have already been taken where the National Green Tribunal has already made the draft norms of water discharge significantly tighter and stricter compared to before. That is the first good step. And there have been regulations like the water reuse policy for bulk users or looking at how a CETP (Common Effluent Treatment Plant) should be designed. So certain steps are being taken. 

I think it’s also related to the maturity of the water market. As the maturity of the market improves and adoption keeps going up, there’s going to be better economies of scale. The financials are going to make more sense and the cost of water is going to get better regulated along. In fact, there are a lot of facilities which are generating excess water after treatment, but they are unable to uptake it. So probably there could be a water exchange in urban areas where they are able to sell this water which could be easily used by industries in the industrial zones. They don’t need to use municipal fresh water for that. So this is another area which can come in, because we are looking at very large volumes of water in India.

Sruthi: Amrit, I know one exciting development we’ve heard and also supported is the launch of your upgraded technology, which is Electrox. It promises better efficiency and lower operational costs. Can you tell us what’s new with this version and how it’s going to take water treatment to the next level for you?

Amrit: Yeah, first of all, a big thank you to ACT for supporting the development of Electrox. It’s a massive upgrade over our previous reactor technology. And what really changes here is that we’ve been able to increase the amount of active oxidation sites, which is technically the amount of treatment sites available inside the reactor by 10X. Now, this automatically allows our reactors to treat water far more quickly than before. In fact, we’re able to treat sewage water in just 40 seconds of contact time in the reactor. Now that’s 25% faster from our previous generation reactors and our energy consumption has reduced by more than 15%, and in some cases, we’re able to actually see up to 30% reduction in energy consumption when we’re deploying it in commercial sites. Now all of this is possible because it’s not just been an iterative improvement, but it’s been a complete overhaul, keeping in mind the customer requirements in India. We encounter hybrid wastewater most of the time in India. So it was important for our reactors, our algorithms, our power supply systems to be able to respond quickly enough to these changing variable loads that come in. And the ability to have more treatment sites increases the probability of pollutants breaking down inside our reactor. 

So, this overall jump from our previous generation flow series and structural flash reactors to Electrox has allowed us to do much larger projects. In fact, we were earlier doing ~2-3 million litres per day projects and now we are able to target and actually deploy systems in the ~30 million litres per day category. So that’s a 10x jump in our ability to deploy systems at scale. And all this has come, while saving more [carbon] footprint. When we were small, we were saving about 70 to 80% [carbon] footprint compared to others. Now we are saving almost 90% [carbon] footprint compared to others. So you’re saving space, you’re able to consume less energy, and you’re treating water faster, and you’re generating less solid waste compared to before, you’re almost generating 23% less of solid waste. So all of this is translating into economic benefits for the customer. But one of the critical things here is that it’s not just improving the lives of our customers, it’s improved our own lives as well. We are making far fewer interventions with our system. Our operators do not require very high skill sets, nor do they require any critical assets for making interventions with the system.

So it’s become much easier now to work with extended partners as well for deployment of our systems. So overall it has impacted our scalability and the timelines over which the scalability could play out. 

Sruthi: Absolutely, I think one with the technology, you’re also saying time is of the essence and it fastens the process, but also it’s a huge cost benefit analysis for enabling adoption, at the same time creating massive impact, right? So very impressive, really excited to hear about Electrox and how it can scale. I just wanted to maybe shift gears a little – huge, huge congratulations on your recent fundraise. Could you share how this funding will help the larger vision for Indra? Where do you see the company heading, both from a business growth perspective and in terms of the impact Indra can actually achieve?

Amrit: Thank you so much about that. We did raise our Series A in January of this year. It was led by Emerald Technology Ventures and co-led by Mela Ventures and we had participation from Peak Sustainability Ventures who have been long time backers of our work, as well as Climate Angels and a few existing investors who reinvested. Of course, existing investors reinvesting is always a good thing because it shows that they continue to have the same kind of confidence in the company. For us, it is a watershed moment. In fact, internally, we call it kind of like the Henry Ford moment of, you know, water where we believe that we are creating a new framework where water systems can be built at scale. It’s no longer important to customise every system. It’s not really important to build every system from scratch. What is important is to shift this complication away from hardware, so the things can be scaled.  

We had deployed just 5,75,000 litres worth of treatment systems, daily treatment systems, in the first five years of our growth. And in a year after that, we deployed 37,80,000 litres worth of treatment capacity. And now, the next three months, we’re deploying another 48,000,000 worth of treatment capacity with our different customers. So this calls for a very different kind of strategy with regards to our ability to produce more in terms of the reactors and the critical components, our ability to provide our electrodes which are consumable to our customers at scale, even capacities for training and processing more of the client sample water because Indra doesn’t really believe in going blind.

We have a process in place where we allow our customers to use our pilots as trial systems. And our pilots use the same reactors as the ones that are used in our commercial systems. So what you get in a pilot is very close and reflects the true performance that you could get with a real commercial system at play. So with all of these factors, we’re trying to upgrade our capacities here, get in more team members, get better training modules in place.

We’ve been also focusing a lot on the partnership program, where we’re working a lot more with larger water players and EPC contractors or technology integrators and providing them training to be able to deploy our assets in multiple process schematics. So, this focus on scale for the next two, three years is going to be there. And we anticipate that this is also going to be helping us across other geographical regions.

Traversing tough roads: Changing behavioural mindsets towards water security

Sruthi: What were the challenges you overcame in your founder journey, even in the first two, three years? What were the challenges that would have almost had you say, okay, I’m dropping this now, but you didn’t? 

Amrit: I think the challenges were a lot about the mindset. Because water has been a commodity that’s been available at such an underpriced value. It’s been about why should we pay for our water, and more importantly why should we pay to clean it up? So that was a big challenge we had to work on, because we had to prove to people that it can actually be economically viable to clean up a resource which is so underpriced.

I think the other challenge was that the water industry is so fragmented and at such a nascent state, though it has been existing for over 100 years now, but the actual development of technology, actual development of financing models, or the industry itself in terms of maturity and execution, all of these are not at the same level of maturity as some of the other industries like automobile industry or manufacturing industry for that matter.

And it was important for us to help our customers understand that not every water plant has to be designed from scratch. It is possible to have a modular approach to water treatment as well. In fact, some of our customers earlier would not believe that you could segregate streams and have a small module taking care of one stream and another taking care of the other polluted stream and then you could combine it. That kind of flexibility to treat different streams differently and have different mixes of treated water. It could not, one could not think about it earlier.

Sruthi: I do want more words of wisdom from you as a founder that we can pass on to our listeners. Building a tech-driven solution in a critical sector like water is no easy feat. What advice would you give, especially when it comes to scaling, securing adoption for innovation?  

Amrit: I think it’s very important to realise that if you’re solving a tech problem and it unlocks great value for your customers, especially in the B2B space, it’s important to create use cases and that calls for restraint. It’s a general mindset that we scale very quickly the moment we build something. But if you’re in the infrastructure space, it can really backfire on you. So what’s important is to take time, perfect your product, get it as close as possible to where you really want it to be. It’s not going to be perfect, but then you need to get it out there to customers, especially smaller use cases. It’s always better to start small. Get the feedback and make it a part of a natural product development cycle that you’ve built a POC, you’re able to test it at the customer side, get their feedback in. So what you build ultimately is going to be what the customer is asking for. It’s never about us wanting to build something and then trying to convince a customer that they need it. Demand has to be organic and we need to respect that. So that’s one of the things that we forget in our quest to scale very quickly. 

For deep tech companies or companies working on hardware, it’s really important to go through this life cycle, really understand the market dynamics, understand what are the value adds, where do you position yourself? Understand your unit economics really, really well. Because since you’re doing R&D and you’re making mistakes and you’re also spending money on projects, it can all go wrong very quickly. So it’s critical to understand these aspects of your business before you walk up to a venture capitalist to ask for money. 

Future Forward: Indra Water at 2030

Sruthi: What is the vision for Indra Water maybe at 2030 or 2050?  

Amrit: As we get closer to 2030, we want to be able to treat that much water each day. That’s the kind of impact we want to make. We want to impact the lives of more than 500,000 people positively each day and not just over five or six years. And for that, scale is so critical. The other aspect that we’re really looking to do is that we want to drive the sector itself towards more maturity. Maturity in product offerings, maturity in how we improve the lives of operators on the ground and what kind of tools we make available. It’s important to upskill people in the water sector. 

So we want to create a framework where something like that is possible, where water quality is being monitored, decisions are better, there is preventive maintenance in play, reduce downtime, and make the life of an operator simpler so that they can upskill further and probably progress in their life. And the last part of the impact is we want to get to really high quality purified water while conserving more energy. 

In India, I think we generate about 72,300 million litres of sewage per day and we generate almost 13,000 million litres of industrial effluents per day. So that is a massive quantity. And even with the work that we’re doing in Indra, we’re not even scratching the surface with that. So [I think] it is important for a lot of innovators to come together, collaborate, and build solutions at scale by supporting each other. So we really look forward to collaborating with people who come up with new ideas.  

Sruthi: Thank you so much, Amrit. This has been such a fascinating conversation. The work you and your team are doing at Indra Water is just not solving an environmental problem, but you’re also reshaping how we value and protect one of our most essential resources.

Amrit: Thank you so much, Sruthi.  

Sruthi: This brings us to the end of our eighth episode of UnHerd – a podcast presented by team ACT. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to our Spotify and YouTube channels, where we’ll bring you more unheard stories of people who are passionate about creating impact at scale in different ways. People who truly stand apart from the herd.

Food waste is a global challenge with alarming environmental implications. It accounts for a staggering 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, surpassing even the aviation industry’s carbon footprint. In India alone, nearly 40% of fresh produce is lost post-harvest due to inadequate storage and transportation, further exacerbating the problem. This waste not only contributes to climate change but also represents a significant economic loss.
Greenpod Labs is tackling this challenge of food waste with its innovative biotech solution. By harnessing the power of biomimicry, they have developed a patented sachet that when placed in crates during transportation, significantly extends the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. This innovative approach has the potential to revolutionise the food supply chain, reducing waste and its associated environmental impact.

Greenpod Labs’ technology leverages natural plant extracts to activate the inherent defence mechanisms of fruits and vegetables, slowing down the ripening process and preventing microbial spoilage. Their product has already demonstrated remarkable success, extending shelf life by 40-80%. Since its commercial launch, Greenpod Labs has demonstrated strong progress by conducting more than 200 B2B commercial pilots. Their solution has already prevented an estimated 20% of food waste, resulting in the abatement of approximately 1,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. With ambitious plans to expand their product line and market reach, Greenpod Labs is projected to mitigate 400,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions within the next three years.

ACT For Environment is supporting Greenpod Labs to accelerate the product development of 2 high-demand products – Strawberry and Grapes – which will help them go to market in time for the upcoming season to rapidly enable market expansion. Our funding will enable them to use specialised equipment that will help measure product efficacy and influence 7x faster product development.

We are excited to partner with Greenpod Labs on this journey and are confident that their innovative solutions will play a pivotal role in creating a more sustainable and resilient food system for India and beyond!

Hosted by ACT, UnHerd brings you the unheard stories of individuals who are challenging conventional principles to disrupt the social impact landscape. From social entrepreneurs to venture philanthropists, dive into real-world conversations on what they’ve experienced and learned about changing the status quo.

Our third episode welcomed Dr. Akshay Jain (Co-founder, Cancrie) who, in conversation with Shazib Siddique (Manager, ACT For Environment), shares his journey and learnings as a chemical engineer who saw an opportunity in using agricultural waste to make innovative nano materials that significantly increase battery efficiency.

Listen to this episode on our Spotify channel or watch the conversation on YouTube.

Shazib – Hello and welcome to the third episode of UnHerd – a podcast hosted by ACT that delves into the extraordinary stories of individuals who are challenging conventional principles to disrupt India’s social impact landscape.

The rapid expansion of the electric vehicle and energy storage markets in India is driving the development of the domestic battery industry. As per estimates, the demand for advanced cell chemistries is expected to reach roughly 220 gigawatt hours by 2030 – however, insufficient capacity of domestic battery cell production and shortages of raw materials have become key factors limiting its growth.

Our guest today is Dr. Akshay Jain, the founder of Cancrie, who has dedicated over 10 years of his life to building more efficient batteries by improving performance and increasing their overall lifespan. He has developed a unique way that transforms agricultural waste into carbon nanomaterials that can be used in batteries and capacitors to increase their efficiency by up to 125%. This patented product uses a proprietary manufacturing process that uses 75% less energy and enables a 13x reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Welcome to Unherd, Akshay!

Akshay – Thank  you so much, Shazib.

The spark that lit the fire: Solving for net zero

Shazib – It’s great having you here today with us. So actually, I want to start from the very beginning because when I look at your journey so far, there seems to have been a love affair between you and chemistry. You first did your bachelor’s in technology and chemical engineering, then went on to do a PhD from National University of Singapore. Subsequently, you have worked with the Center for Innovation in Singapore as a scientist and have also been a Fellow with the United Nations Environment Program. What was the spark that lit your fire for working in the climate action space and more specifically on battery efficiency solutions?

Akshay – So first of all, I would say you know, it is a slowly developed love affair. It developed slowly because when I started my bachelor’s in chemical engineering, I had a few options. I was very much inclined towards chemistry. So that was a very simple option for me – instead of choosing electrical engineering or mechanical engineering. And from thereon, I went for a PhD and because I was still inclined towards the technical parts. I saw a lot of industrialists coming to our campus and I was always inspired by those people – the big industries they’ve made by being in that space. So looking at that, it always inspired me that, you know, we can do something big with the chemical engineering space. I went on to do my PhD from National University of Singapore and when I finished my work, it [chemical engineering] was [still] continuously evolving.

And there was always a need which came for sustainability. We have to create climate tech solutions. We have to get to net zero emissions. So slowly those things were coming up and we realized how important it is. [And] when I was associated with the United Nations, there was a clear need that until or unless you create net zero emissions, there is going to be a big problem in the time to come. So, that really clicked with me that whatever we need to do on this earth today should be in the direction that we need to save this planet.

So when I was doing my PhD, I got this option – can we do something for the recycling / upcycling process? This field was kind of expanding and expanding, and there was a clear need; that we need to create these green jobs and net zero emissions. That was the time when I was working in the Center of Innovation. It struck me [to think about] whether we can do it ourselves, whether we can do something more, whether we can create a bigger impact.

So that was the time we started this journey of taking this product – what we are doing today in the market – how we can recycle the waste, upcycle the waste, get to the market, and that which can be used in the batteries, which is, again, related to sustainability, which is again, related to creating net zero emissions. Whichever way we are doing this, maybe we are not making the batteries or making the EVs, but making this material which improves the battery efficiency is something we are contributing to from our end in creating and bringing sustainability. And that is how from the last 10 – 12 years, this technology has come so far and we’ve commercialized this technology from the very scratch.

Traversing tough roads: Lessons from early failures

Shazib – I also want to double click on your journey of innovating this material because the first exposure or the first discovery happened at your time in National University of Singapore, where you also founded a startup called Mesotope, and that was your first startup. Building a startup is not an easy journey so I’m sure there were a lot of lessons that you learned during that first startup experience. What have been the big risks, the big failures, and the larger than life lessons that continue to guide you today?

Akshay – I was working at the Center of Innovation in Singapore and when I switched on to do my own venture, that was Mesotope –  that was started in Singapore. We started in 2019, and when the journey started, it was like we already had proof of concepts; [we had] published some papers. As an entrepreneur, we thought, okay, it’s very easy to get the money from the VCs. But when we really got into the deep tech space – material science, climate tech, hard tech, we wanted to manufacture it ourselves – the reality was very different. [We realized] that unless you have your product made at pilot scale, unless you do trials at the industrial scale in a relevant environment, there will be a challenge.

So that was the first time we thought, okay, we have to put this plant, we have to make these carbons at pilot scale. We invested some amount of money, we did some trials to make these batteries, but all at a laboratory scale. That was the first time we scaled up, and it was a big failure. Why? Because we scaled it for the first time – the kind of materials of construction (MOCs) which we used, the kind of industrial grade chemicals we used, we didn’t realize that what can go wrong in that? We were very naive at that time, and we just used it – we thought that everything would be fine.

We invested a lot of money there, our personal savings had gone into it. And then when the battery came out and the performance came out, it was just an average battery, and there were a lot of water losses. We invested almost eight months into it, and then we realized that every single penny has gone into it. And the battery didn’t perform because of the money. We were out of options.

So that was the time we applied for Techstars, and we said this is the last option we had. We get this money based on the idea and the theme. We [told ourselves] that we will proceed further,  otherwise there is no money to carry on. Because being in a deep-tech and hard-tech space is so expensive. Each and every characterization of the material, each and every characterization of the test on the battery costs us a lot. When [we] applied for Techstars, we were bootstrapping that time, we were only getting support from Nidhi EIR that was Rs. 30,000 a month. We all know that we cannot run a company with that. Me and my co-founder Mahi Singh, we just continued for a few months like that. But luckily Techstars believed in us.

Techstars gave us another chance, and they said, okay, we will give you another chance based on your idea and the capabilities you have. That was somewhere in April 2021 – we got the offer from them and in July 2021, we went to the U.S. and were there for six months. And then, we just continued. And then the journey never stopped. So the learning we had from Mesotope was one very clear thing – that you have to be extremely, extremely careful on the machine types you’re choosing, how you are approaching the market and how much money you have. And you have to be really, really planned a little ahead in terms of the fundraise, calculate the runway you have and take calculated risks. But we have learned a lot of lessons, which definitely made us what we are today at Cancrie, because we have learned those lessons at Mesotope.

First principles lens: Challenges and opportunities in climate-tech

Shazib – That’s so interesting to know that all these struggles and hardships have brought you to this position today where you have developed Cancrie into an advanced materials research company, and you’re developing advanced grade carbons that outperform the incumbent fossil derived carbon black, which is produced out of a very energy-intensive process. Your solution is a delight for any battery company in that regard, because I mean, you currently are already working with some of the largest battery manufacturers, like Luminous, Laurus, Sparco, and Future Energy. But I want to understand from you, what are the unknown struggles of an early stage climate tech entrepreneur that we do not often talk about?

Akshay – Whenever we are talking about these clients, they’re currently getting these carbons from Indian companies and also from abroad – definitely the companies or the manufacturers who are sitting in India, they prefer to have these kinds of carbons, indigenous solutions so that they have a continuous supply. And of course, in terms of the other benefits – in terms of pricing, in terms of the local solutions – these [benefits] are always there [from Indian manufacturers]. Now, what we are bringing to the table is very unique because one, like you already mentioned, is about the energy efficient solutions – that we are getting or making these carbons with much less intensive solutions or lesser intensive processes.

Once we get these carbons out, there are certain parameters, which play a very big role for the battery manufacturers or the batteries rather, for the performance of these batteries. What we are building at Cancrie from this 10 years of experience is that we are optimizing the properties in such a way that we are improving its porosities – like poor areas, poor volumes, conductivities, functionalities, poor volumes, particle sizes, purity levels. There are a lot of parameters. We understood what each and every level is going to play a role in the performance of these batteries.

Now, when we reached out to these players, definitely battery being a very sensitive industry, everybody has these challenges. “Do we have to try this product?” Because number one is, it [trying a new product] is always a time consuming job, right? You have a brand name in the market, and if something goes wrong, you’re all gone. Therefore the manufacturers were not accepting this so easily. To do the trials, we have done the product development for almost one to one and a half years with just one customer. We have shown all these performances after all these certifications, after all the tests at third party international laboratories. And once we had all those things with us, that was the time we reached out to more players, because otherwise it was a challenge for us.

All those challenges which came and everything needs money. There was a time when customers said to us that, see, we are not ready to take that risk, and we are not going to pay you for this because this is new, you are trying out something. Definitely when we reached the investors and the VCs, they were also [hesitant] – whether they are going to take that risk because we did not have any revenue. So this gap was there and we faced it in a big way. And that is where a lot of grants came very handy, that have de-risked us in a step-by-step process. First, we expanded the facility. Second, we made the batteries. Third, we did the industrial-scale trials. Fourth, we did the relevant environment testing, and that is where the grants like [ACT really helped]. Definitely extremely thankful for ACT For Environment who have supported us and believed in us.

But that is where the bridge needs to happen.

Shazib – ACT happens to be one of your supporters, but there are of course, other initiatives and a lot of them, that you have been beneficiary of – like government initiatives with respect to early stage climate tech innovations. So, while there are already a lot of incentives and work being done from the government side on promoting the adoption and the manufacturing capabilities of domestic batteries in India – schemes like the Production Linked Incentive scheme (PLI) specifically, which are focused on the advanced chemistry cells which is a strategic initiative to promote domestic manufacturing and also promote the wider adoption of electric vehicles and renewable energy storage so that we can meet the intermittency challenge.

Akshay – Yeah see, this is extremely important. If you look at this space of climate-tech, of batteries and of recycling materials, there is a lot of scope which can be taken care of. What the government has done already is that they have stated that these are the things by which we can control climate change. Can we ourselves, as a company, first bring ourselves to net zero emissions?

And can we support other companies to do that? Because we know that in the manufacturing setup, in the production sector, there will be some emissions which are going to come in, but we don’t want that to happen, and therefore we have to negate that. So we have to think one step ahead. We just don’t want ourselves to be net zero. But what we really want is we really want to make this world a net zero place to live in so that there are no emissions.

And that can be done by bringing sustainability [to] the mainstream, and which can be supported through the help of all these kinds of small developments.

Future Forward: Insights on building a sustainable business

Shazib – And that’s a good segue for me to also come to my next question, which is that your work in itself is very unique. You are building a material science company which is very hard to build, but your approach is also rooted in helping the local community. Tell me why is that so important to you, and what’s your definition of a truly sustainable business?

Akshay – We are recycling the agri-waste, upcycling the agri-waste [and] we always have this vision – can we help the local community there? Farmers who are into this, who are getting certain prices for their waste, or rather they’re just simply burning it or they’re simply throwing it. Can we bring some value to that waste and help that local community earn some benefits from there? We are also thinking in the long term, can we have the distributed units of our plant where these farmers can be employed there, where they can sell their waste there and we can use it in their industry.

Second, very, very important thing, [with] every battery, there are certain rare earth materials which go inside there. What our Cancrie carbon does is, it increases the performance of the batteries and it increases the active utilization of the material which is present inside. What it means is when you say, if you need a hundred grams of the rare earth material, what we are now saying is, instead of a hundred grams, maybe you will get the same performance of the batteries in 95 to 90 grams. Then that means we are saving those rare earth materials by 5-10%. That means that the need for mining is being reduced.

How that is helping the local community is definitely from the health hazard point of view, because now we are not relying more and more on mining. We want to reduce that, and of course, saving the earth from digging it more and more, and of course, saving the people who are into that industry and saving them from health hazards too.

Shazib – Being a founder is not an easy job. You are wearing multiple hats all at once and getting your hands dirty. As an entrepreneur, things can take a downturn at any moment. So how do you prepare yourself for the unprepared nature of this job?

Akshay – See there are definitely unknown challenges in whatever path you take, right? Even when you’re working or, or when I say working, that means if you’re employed somewhere, if you’re doing your own business, or if you’re not doing anything and sitting at home, there will always be challenges which will come and which are always unknown. So, one thing that I’ve learned is that whatever challenge is coming, if it is unknown, don’t think that something [bad] is going to happen. Preserve that energy for the time when it comes, save that energy and fight with the challenge when it comes, because the majority of the things happen only in our mind.

I think my dad told me that, “Akshay, why don’t you write things which you really worry about? Just write it in the diary and see if it is happening with you or not in the future.” I’ll tell you the day I started writing it, until now, none of those things have happened. None, not even one. I’ve written more than a hundred times – it didn’t happen. I [also] meditate a lot. Even in the morning when I come, even in the night when I go [home] before my dinner, I do meditation. I feel that that gives you a lot of power in some way, which I didn’t realize when I started it, it was all for physical reasons, maybe because of my physical health, but it has given me much more than that.

And one more thing which I also do, although I’m not getting a lot of time, I still try to do – is play at least one sport. It gives me some energy, some form of energy, if I play out and go out and do these things. But I think these are some of the things which I feel I can really rely on, which keeps me going.

Shazib – That’s amazing. What are the opportunities that young budding entrepreneurs can tap into? And what advice would you give to young founders who are excited about building in this particular space?

Akshay – One thing that all entrepreneurs should think about is that you should do something that is needed. That’s extremely important. Don’t do your own fanciful things. Don’t do things just because you want to become an entrepreneur or because you want to have your own startup – because these are the things which are going to hit you hard because you want to sell, but [what if] people don’t want to buy? So determine that, take some time and focus on that. Once you get into that, there will be a lot of challenges, which are going to come. But once you are settled, once you have determined that this is something which you really think is going to contribute in some way, then don’t change the pathway.

You have to make your own path. So what we did was we were like, okay, we have these many papers, we have patents. Let’s go to the VC market and we’ll get the money. But the reality was different. And that was the time we learned. Whenever the money comes, it’ll come. We will try, we will keep trying. Grow slow, no problem. Don’t try to rush into things. Grow slow. Because the most important thing, if you have determined that you have to build this, then you will build it.

Shazib – Right. That’s very well said. Thank you so much Akshay for being so candidly open about sharing your experiences, and it was a pleasure speaking to you today and hosting you today on this episode.

Akshay – Thank you Shazib.

Shazib – This brings us to the end of our third episode of UnHerd – a podcast presented by team ACT. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to our Spotify and YouTube channels where we’ll bring you more unheard stories of people who are passionate about creating impact at scale in differential ways. People who truly stand apart from the herd.

As the Indian EV market booms, there is significant demand for the domestic production of Lithium-ion batteries – as is evidenced by the government of India’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme which has a budgetary outlay of INR 18000 Crores for advanced battery chemistries. With industry players like Reliance and Ola Electric poised to set up their own Lithium-ion battery plants by 2025, there is a unique opportunity for recycled rare metals as production input which can reduce India’s dependence on the import of mined metals and prevent the depletion of scarce resources caused by mining. At the same time, there is also a need for sustainable recycling of end-of-life Li-ion batteries as India will need to recycle an estimated 150 kilo tons of Lithium-ion battery waste by 2030, whereas our current recycling capacity is less than 2000 tons a year.

Founded in 2021, Minimines is a clean-tech company whose innovative solution has the potential to address both ends of the value chain to enable true circularity. They have developed a unique low-cost and low-emissions hybrid hydrometallurgy process to recycle used Lithium-ion batteries and extract rare metals like Lithium, Manganese, Cobalt and Nickel, which can be used in the domestic production of fresh Lithium-ion batteries in India.

Currently, the most common battery recycling methods are pyrometallurgy and traditional solvent-based hydrometallurgy that face significant environmental challenges like high energy requirements, usage of large quantities of water, high carbon emissions and the need for expensive organic solvents that generate toxic waste. In stark contrast, Minimines’s proprietary technology is 75% more energy efficient and 95% more water efficient than prevalent recycling methods along with having the benefit of zero direct emissions. Furthermore, they are able to recover all the rare metals with more than 96% efficiency and at 99% purity – the efficacy of their solution has been validated at lab scale.

ACT for Environment’s support will enable Minimines to accelerate scale of production by transitioning from their current batch scale unit to a continuous process unit at 1.5 ton / month capacity. This will ensure mission-critical process efficiencies that will accelerate their go-to-market plan and drive adoption by facilitating commercial pilots within the battery manufacturing space.

We’re excited to be a partner to Minimines and support them in their goal of enabling sustainable battery recycling while contributing towards India’s journey of becoming self – reliant in the Lithium-ion battery manufacturing space!

India faces a unique challenge in managing its sewer pipelines as it grapples with an ageing infrastructure that has been resulting in substantial economic and human losses. A staggering 79% of our water supply is rendered non-potable due to water losses during distribution or contamination. Traditionally, municipalities have employed manual labour for pipeline inspection and desludging – however a strategic shift in the government’s initiatives, marked by the prohibition of manual scavenging through the PEMSR Act 2013 and increased budgets for sanitation programs, signals a growing use-case for mechanical solutions that can replace the need for manual labour.

In 2018, Solinas Integrity emerged to address these challenges, embarking on a journey marked by the development and deployment of innovative solutions. Their flagship products, Endobot and HomoSEP, have proven instrumental in inspecting water lines and desludging manholes/septic tanks respectively and have gained significant traction with municipal corporations and O&Ms alike.

Solinas now aspires to develop a unique robotic solution that can enable both inspection and cleaning of sewer lines >600mm. Equipped with the same PTZ camera and sonar sensor as the Endobot, the Rehabilitation Bot (R-Bot) will also have an agitator and suction system that can not only diagnose leaks and blockages in sewer pipes but also efficiently de-sludge and remove contaminants. Once deployed, it has the potential to be 5x more efficient and 3.5x more cost-effective than manual cleaning methods.

Furthermore, the R-Bot will also be integrated with Swasth, their proprietary AI platform, to facilitate real-time predictive analytics on defects, blockages and leaks along with pipeline health through an AI integration in the robot sensor.

ACT for Environment’s grant support will play a catalytic role in accelerating the development and deployment of the R-Bot with municipalities and O&M players alike. We are thrilled to collaborate with them on their mission to revolutionise WaSH management in India, aiming to reduce water losses, contamination, sewer blockages, and eliminate manual scavenging.

India is the third-largest consumer of energy in the world and will account for 25% of the growth in global energy demand from 2019 to 2040. Propelled by rapid urbanisation and industrialization, energy consumption in India has experienced a twofold increase since 2000 and projections indicate a 5% annual growth until 2040. However, regional disparities in energy consumption persist, with variations across states and among rural and urban areas. The reliance of the economy on the energy sector, coupled with escalating demand, has positioned the energy landscape as a critical focus area for India’s net zero ambitions.

India’s energy consumption can be categorised into five key areas, each playing a pivotal role in shaping overall usage: power generation, industrial production & processes, transportation, building usage and agriculture usage. Even though power generation and industrial usage constitute the bulk of energy consumption, transport related energy demand has grown 3.5 times and demand in buildings has grown by 40% since 2000. Although agriculture is relatively the smallest consumer of energy, electricity consumed in agriculture can go up to 50% of total consumption in some states.

But while India’s increasing energy imports to meet this surge in demand have spurred a concerted effort towards the expansion of renewable energy sources, we are facing formidable challenges:

High Transmission and Distribution (T&D) Losses: The prevalence of significant T&D losses hampers the ability of distribution companies (DisComs) to make bold and decisive investments in renewables. Addressing these losses is crucial to creating an environment conducive to renewable energy adoption.

Low Energy Storage Capacity: The growth of renewable energy has outpaced advancements in energy storage technology. The lack of commensurate progress in storage capabilities poses a bottleneck to the seamless integration of renewables into the energy grid. A focused approach is needed to accelerate the development of efficient energy storage solutions.

Recycling and Reuse Applications: While renewable energy sources have proliferated, there is a concurrent need to enhance efforts in recycling and reusing associated components. A holistic approach to sustainable practices should encompass not only energy production but also the management of materials involved in the renewable energy lifecycle.

What We’re Looking For

ACT For Environment will now also be looking at energy transition as a key area of investment focus and we’re looking to prioritise 3 pivotal spheres to help catalyse an outsized climate impact at scale:

Waste to energy / alternative fuels; given intermittency and wastage issues with renewables
Battery recycling & new battery chemistries; given that the current market dominated by lithium ion batteries which which have large environment & human costs
Distributed renewable energy (DRE); given the need to enable access to energy and livelihoods for rural India
Energy efficiency solutions for businesses; given that industrial energy consumption is the highest

We’ll also be looking to strengthen these innovations through a collaborative approach, by uniting the private sector, public institutions, and specialised research and policy partners in a collective effort to drive lasting impact.

If you’re a social entrepreneur working on an innovative energy solution in any of the above areas, submit your grant application here!