ah! Ventures invests in waste management startup

Mumbai: Co-founded by Debartha Banerjee, Jayanth Nataraju, and Ritvik Rao, Sampurn(e)arth provides end-to-end decentralized and customized waste management solutions such as dry waste collection and processing, biogas plant installation, composting, O&M and consulting services. It works closely with the non-profit waste picker organization Stree Mukti Sanghatana and actively incorporates waste pickers into the process, thereby up-skilling them and increasing incomes. Its clientele includes municipal bodies, corporate parks educational campuses and residential units.

Sharing the statistics on the scale of the problem in the waste management segment, Co-founder Jayanth Nataraju said, “In Mumbai alone, about 10,000 tonnes of waste is generated daily, so there is a huge opportunity for intervention. With initiation of the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, there is an increased interest in our solutions and we are seeing tremendous support from stakeholders across the value chain. We are confident that with the guidance of investors on scaling the business, we will be able to move the needle on this vast challenge.

Talking about the investment, Sidharth Pansari, Group Director, Primac Group and investor from ah! Ventures, said, “It is our responsibility to give our environment and the people living around us, a more sustainable future than we have today. By investing in SampurnEarth we are directly contributing in creating a positive impact on the environment, coming up with innovative ways in which one can turn waste into re-usable resources and renewable energy. Primarc Group’s real estate projects have been developed with environment friendly features like rain water harvesting, sewage treatment plant, Solar hot water, fly ash bricks and organic water treatment. We should put our knowledge and experience to come up with new sustainable solutions for the greater benefit of the planet by creating better disposal options and safer treatment of waste”.

Ajay Dalmia, I3N, said, “The current method of dumping waste into landfills leads to several environmental and societal problems. This practice adversely affects the health of people and also fails to recognize the inherent value in the waste. Sampurn(e)arth is bringing in an effective decentralized asset light business model that is environmentally sustainable, generates employment and is profitable. This is an execution intensive model and we have full faith in the promoters’ passion for the cause and ability to deliver.”

“ah! Impact, the platform through with the investment in Sampurn(e)arth was made, validates our commitment and foresight towards social investing in India. Also, large number of our investors, which are mostly first time investors have shown great interest in investing in social enterprises with high potential and measurable social or environmental impact. Sampurn(e)arth investment is our commitment to creating a positive impact through angel investing and we are thrilled that many of our current ah! Angels are now seriously considering impact investing.” said Harshad Lahoti, Founder & CEO, ah! Ventures.

ah! Impact also recently reinvested in Ketto, a crowdfunding platform for social, personal and creative projects.