Online scrap collection platform The Kabadiwala gets funding

Online scrap collection startup The Kabadiwala has raised Rs 3 crore ($434,280 at the current exchange rate) in fresh funding from a group of angel investors.

The investors who participated in the round included Naveen Reddy, supply chain director at Unilever; Bhushan Gajaria, founder of Beehive Capital Advisors; Bharat Mandloi, managing director at Singapore-based ABCOM Investments; Suresh Parekh of Parekh Marine Transport; and angel investor Vishal Thaker.

Owned and operated by Asar Green Kabadi Pvt. Ltd, the Bhopal-based company will use the fresh capital to boost its technology platform besides expanding operations, The Economic Times reported citing the company’s founders.

Founded in 2013 by Anurag Asati and Kavindra Raghuwanshi, The Kabadiwala offers a doorstep service to offices, institutions, households and schools to sell junk such as newspaper, iron, plastic, metal and more. The startup recycles, reuses and resells the scrap. It schedules pickups and supplies waste to authorised recycling centres. 

Citing Raghuwanshi, the report said the company collects 100 tonnes of solid waste annually.

Other startups in the scrap collection and waste management segment include KabadiExpress, Pastiwala, Karma Recycling, Pom Pom, ExtraCarbon and Attero Recycling.

Deals in the segment

• August 2016: Gurugram-based waste management company ExtraCarbon secured Rs 1.5 crore ($225,000) in a round led by Brand Capital, the ad-for-equity investment arm of Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd (BCCL).
• June 2016: KabadiExpress raised Rs 1 crore (about $147,000) from a Delhi-based investor. 
• June 2015: E-waste management startup Karma Recycling raised an undisclosed amount from Infuse Ventures and Low Carbon Enterprise Fund, a fund managed by Environmental Resources Management Foundation.
• April 2015: Vadodara-based waste paper collection and recycling startup Sort India Enviro Solutions Ltd, which operates under the brand Pastiwala, had raised $4 million from Agnus Capital, a private investment arm of the promoters of public listed drugmaker Strides Arcolab.
• August 2014: Among the biggest investments in this segment in India, Noida-based Attero Recycling Pvt. Ltd, which is into e-waste disposal and management, raised $16.5 million in its Series C round led by private equity fund Forum Synergies (India).