Food Upcycling Startup Wastelink Raises INR 10 Cr In Seed Funding The company plans to utilize the funds to scale up the nutrition science and technology platform capability & expand the scope of food waste recycling
By Soumya Duggal •
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Wastelink, a food upcycling start-up, has secured a seed funding of INR 10 crores led by Matterhorn Projects LLP, Indigram Labs Foundation, Sanjiv Rangrass and other angel investors. Wastelink is incubated at the Indigram Labs Foundation.
The capital raised will be used to expand Wastelink's footprint across India and scale up their nutrition science and food waste supplier platform capability, a statement said.
Led by entrepreneurs Saket Dave and Krishnan Kasturirangan, Wastelink strives to build a sustainable food to feed ecosystem for the country; through state-of-the-art processing technology, the startup transforms food waste into high energy ingredients for the animal feed industry, generating economic and environmental benefits, added the statement.
"We are extremely excited to have raised our first-ever funding and the opportunities that come with it. The collective experience of our investors along with the capital will immensely benefit us as we chart our journey towards national expansion. We aspire to make a meaningful positive impact on society by upcycling 1 million metric tons of food waste within 2-3 years," said Saket Dave, CEO, Wastelink.
According to the UN Environment Program (UNEP) 2021 Report, 8-10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food waste. As per the Food and Agriculture Organization 2021 report, 40 per cent of food produced in India gets wasted largely due to fragmented food production systems and supply chain. Wastelink's efforts are towards addressing this massive economic and environmental problem. Wastelink aligns with the circular economy for food ensuring that food waste stays within the food chain.
"Wastelink is unquestionably bringing momentum to the circular economy, which is the need of the hour. We are excited to partner with Saket and Krishnan who bring vast experience as well as a passion for working towards a global issue simultaneous to economic growth. The founders have a unique approach to penetrate into the food waste supply chain and create monetary opportunities," said Malvika Poddar, director, Matterhorn Projects LLP.
Wastelink, a tech-enabled B2B food upcycling startup, strives to build sustainable food-to-feed ecosystem for the country. Keeping sustainability at the core, the team helps food manufacturers and retailers prevent food waste generation by transforming their surplus and rejects into nutritious animal feed. Founded in the year 2018 by engineers Saket Dave and Krishnan Kasturirangan, the team focusses on feed nutrition and technical processing and uses it to produce high-energy feed ingredients.
