In 2016, NASA published an image of a fire raging across the largest landfill in Mumbai, underscoring India’s escalating waste management crisis and sparking public concern and action. 

Situated near Thane Creek, the Deonar dumping ground stretches across 326 acres, receiving over 3,700 metric tons of trash daily—nearly one-third of the city’s waste back then. 

Amidst this, two NGO founders–Rahul Nainani and Gurashish Singh Sahni–realised the issue of a large amount of waste ending up in landfills. In 2016, they founded ReCircle to address the same. 

Today, ReCircle–a data and supply chain company–is working on digitising India’s waste supply chain and monetising the data that flows through this supply chain. 

How did it begin?

In 2015, Nainani and Sahni first met at a Google startup weekend and decided to start an NGO model to connect households in Deonar to institutions for waste collection. However, the Deonar fire in the following year led the founders to pivot to develop a system that focuses on diverting waste away from landfills and oceans. 

“One of the things we found was that the average life expectancy of people living around the dumpsite (Deonar) was about 38-37 years of age. These people don’t work in the dumpsite but live in the penitentiary of the dumpsite itself. And that was a wake-up call–it is happening in the heart of the city, in Mumbai,” Nainani, CEO of ReCircle, tells YourStory. 

“If it is affecting the people living around the dumpsite, how soon will it start affecting the rest of us?”–the duo were plagued by the question.

ReCircle started its operations under a business-to-consumer (B2C) model, but after three years, in 2019, the company realised it needed to procure larger volumes of waste to create an impact in the ecosystem and pivoted to a B2B model. “That is when we saw most of our growth come in,” he adds. 

According to the co-founder, the waste management sector did not exist when the company was established–either for investors or customers. Initially, ReCircle struggled to convince people of the need for recycling. 

Another challenge was to get the right team, as the co-founders did not have a background in the waste management sector prior to starting the company. 

“It’s kind of like a non-sexy business. You’re not going to a tech startup that is growing and building something along those lines. So, finding the right team, getting the right people, building around that, and ensuring VCs see a bigger potential around that (was a challenge),” Nainani notes. 

Business model

ClimaOne, ReCircle’s proprietary software, offers a reverse supply chain for plastic waste by connecting waste aggregators and collectors to recyclers and processors. 

The platform enables the company to track and trace material that flows across this supply chain, giving it access to data ranging from where the waste was collected to how much was procured and what value it holds. 

ReCircle sells this data to its clients, including Unilever, Coca-Cola, and Nestle, in the form of credits to meet their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals set by government regulatory bodies under the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) service.

The Mumbai-based company works with 400 collection partners across 250+ locations in India. In March 2024, the company recovered over 169,000 tonnes of waste through its supply chain. To put this into context, the co-founder says 169,000 tonnes is equivalent to the weight of over 28,000 full-grown. 

Additionally, it has partnered with local scrap dealers, adopting a similar model to cab aggregators, where the dealer earns a portion of the waste collected. 

“We have collection partners that run their independent businesses, and we provide them with this platform to give an additional source of income and be part of our supply chain. We basically transact with them in terms of volumes that we need to collect from them,” Nainani explains.

The company offers another service to clients, called the Plastic Neutral Program, which targets micro and small enterprises exempted from EPR compliances and provides a voluntary credit mechanism to these companies. 

In April, ReCircle started a new project, Project Extra Life, in Mumbai with Circular Apparel Innovation Factory to target textile waste, where it has a system to recover and collect old textile materials from households, offices, and fashion houses, among others. 

The path forward

ReCircle aims to work towards ethical circularity and is recycling waste material by itself along with its partners to achieve the same.  

Earlier in September, the startup raised an undisclosed investment in a bridge round co-led by Venture Catalysts, Mumbai Angels, and high-net-worth individuals (HNIs). At present, it is in discussions with investors to raise a Series A round. 

“With their focus on working towards ethical circularity and plans to forward integrate into the plastic waste supply chain, the company will not only be able to provide high-quality, traceable recycled plastic content to companies using plastic packaging but also build a new revenue channel,” said Shalini Chhabra of 3i Partners.

3i Partners had invested in ReCircle’s pre-Series A funding round in 2023, along with Flipkart Ventures and Acumen Fund Inc.

“We are already collecting bottles for Coca-Cola, which we are sending for recycling. We intend to set up our own recycling plant with this fundraise, where we convert these recycled bottles into granules that can be used to make new bottles out of that ecosystem. So, our forward integration with the plastic supply chain is one we are looking at in terms of using our investment into setting up our own recycling unit,” Nainani says.

The company, which aims to begin its recycling unit by early next financial year, is also exploring export opportunities for plastic granules in the US, European, and Middle Eastern markets, where there is a bigger consumer awareness and demand for recycled material. 

According to Mordor Intelligence, India’s waste management market size is estimated at $12.90 billion in 2024, expected to reach $13.30 billion by 2029, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 6.10% between 2024 and 2029. 

Going forward, ReCircle aims to increase its revenue channel by selling recycled plastics to the same brand owners it currently collaborates with as a new source of revenue. 

The company targets over $23 million in the next three years and has been cash flow positive since FY23.

ReCircle was part of YourStory’s Tech30 list, which looked at India’s 30 most promising startups poised to become major disruptors across fields.

Hello,

What do you call an ex-unicorn? 

A recent transition towards a direct distribution model and a muted demand for Mamaearth has cost Honasa Consumer its unicorn status. 

Honasa Consumer’s shares fell about 29% across sessions since its close last week, despite the company clarifying that its distribution value chain carried a total inventory of Rs 40.69 crore, against the quoted figure of Rs 300 crore of near-expiry inventory by the All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation, 

At market close on Thursday, the company’s shares were trading at Rs 237.40 apiece, down 9.99%, tanking the company’s total market cap to Rs 7,721 crore (roughly $902 million) from its IPO valuation of Rs 10,500 crore. 

It wasn’t a bright day for Gautam Adani, either. 

Adani Group companies lost about $27 billion in market value after Adani and a few others were indicted on alleged bribery and fraud charges by US prosecutors to win solar power plant contracts, expected to yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years. 

Adani Enterprises closed down 23% in its worst single-day drop since February 2023, although Adani Group denied the allegations as “baseless”. It added that it would seek “all possible legal recourse”.

But there was more bad news. Kenyan President William Ruto cancelled certain Adani contracts in the first major business fallout after the indictment.

ICYMI: All that happened in the Adani case. 

Lastly, meet the new entrant to LinkedIn–Varun Dhawan!

The Bollywood actor took to the professional networking social media platform and said he wanted to connect with professionals beyond just the entertainment industry. 

As they say, there’s no age to learn new things!

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• India’s love for short video
• Bounce on path to profitability
• Driving diversity in entrepreneurship

Here’s your trivia for today: What Christmas single has the biggest sales of all time?

Internet

India’s love for short videos

India’s short-form video market has grown 3.6 times in daily users since 2020, thanks to its reach in smaller cities and better content, according to Redseer Strategy Consultants.

Scroll:

• Mukesh Kumar, Associate Partner at Redseer Strategy Consultants, believes India’s digital advertising market is projected to nearly double by FY29 to reach $16–17 billion, with video advertising leading the way as the fastest-growing ad format.
• More than 50% of short-form video users are monetisable, the report noted. The discretionary spending of these users is often directed toward ecommerce, OTT, in-app purchases, and paid gaming services.
• Currently, over 63% of the short-form video engagement is coming from Tier II+ regions, with platforms like Josh and Moj tailoring content for local languages and preferences.

Startup: Zopper

Amount: $25M

Round: Series D

Startup: CredFlow

Amount: $3.7M

Round: Pre-Series B

Startup: O4H

Amount: Rs 1 Cr

Round: Seed

Interview

Bounce CEO outlines path to profitability

After multiple pivots, Bounce entered the EV ecosystem in 2021 and has since managed to significantly narrow its net losses consecutively until FY23. The company is yet to file its FY24 results, but according to Vivekananda Hallekere, CEO and Co-founder of Bounce, it turned EBIT positive in September for the first time and is on track to clock in Rs 100 crore in revenue in FY25. 

Growing business:

• The company started its journey in 2014 as a premium bike rental company that offered two-wheelers across a range of brands from Harley Davidson to Ducati. It later became a scooter rental platform in 2016.
• According to Hallekere, the company is the only Indian OEM today that has been able to integrate with battery-swapping operators. 
• While Bounce operates in the B2C segment, it also focuses on B2B use cases. “In the last two quarters, we worked closely with logistics companies and quick commerce companies,” Hallekere added.

Women entrepreneur

Driving diversity in entrepreneurship

Avneet Kohli is the co-founder of Encubay, a global startup and angel platform that aims to drive diversity in entrepreneurship and investing.

Over the past four years, Kohli and Co-founder Deeksha Ahuja conceptualised six IPs or properties. The most popular is the Power Circle—a safe space for women to share ideas, network, and meet peers in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Dubai.

Connecting:

• As part of Encubay Global Immersion Week, it also hosts SoarUp, a pitch competition for startups to showcase what they are building to potential investors. 
• Other initiatives include Fempreneurs—a scaling-up and business acceleration programme led by industry experts; FounderFounder—where women ace their pitch and build relationships with investors over casual cocktails, canapes, and conversations, and Women in Emerging Tech, which helps women upskill.
• In the future, Encubay wants to strengthen its presence in the UAE market, in terms of engagement and investors, including scaling and building structure systems. 

News & updates

• Chrome: The US Justice Department argued that Google should divest its Chrome browser as part of a remedy to break up the company’s illegal monopoly in online search. If the DOJ’s proposed remedy is approved, Google would not be allowed to re-enter the search market for five years.
• Unsubscribe: WhatsApp is testing new ways for users to provide feedback to WhatsApp Businesses about what kind of messages they would want to receive—or not receive. This involves buttons like “interested/not interested” and “stop/resume” for some specific categories of messages. 
• AI: Nvidia said its latest generation of chips, known as Blackwell, launched earlier this year, is in “great shape”, as the world’s most valuable company reported another strong quarter of revenue growth, thanks to high demand for the infrastructure that has underpinned the artificial intelligence boom.

What Christmas single has the biggest sales of all time?

Answer: White Christmas by Bing Crosby, with an estimated 50 million copies sold worldwide.

We would love to hear from you! To let us know what you liked and disliked about our newsletter, please mail [email protected]. 

If you don’t already get this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here. For past editions of the YourStory Buzz, you can check our Daily Capsule page here.

A small vendor from Gujarat supplying chemicals to a large petroleum corporation listed its invoice worth Rs 1.5 lakh on the M1Xchange discounting platform. After the corporation approved the invoice, the vendor received multiple bids from banks within minutes.

The vendor picked the best bid—the one with the least waiver—and almost immediately received the funds from the bank. This money will help the vendor produce another batch of chemicals for another client.

The online bidding, witnessed by YourStory, represents a typical scenario on the M1xchange platform, wherein at least three to four banks bid on each invoice put up by small and medium enterprises.

M1xchange is one of the four regulated trade receivable discounting (TReDS) platforms in India, alongside RXIL, A.TReDS, and C2treds. The online platform allows small and medium-sized businesses—like the vendor from Gujarat—to discount their invoices to receive payment faster. This way, vendors don’t have to wait for payment from their clients and have adequate funds to cover their working capital needs.

Amazon-backed has M1xchange has helped businesses encash invoices worth more than Rs 1.3 lakh crore since its inception in 2017. In FY25 alone, the fintech firm aims to discount invoices worth Rs 72,000 crore.

FY24 has been a year of robust growth for the M1Xchange platform. It achieved a 104.8% increase in revenue, reaching Rs 52.95 crore, compared to Rs 25.85 crore in FY23. Its profits grew nearly six-fold—from Rs 1.65 crore in FY23 to Rs 9.44 crore in FY24.

The platform expects the growth to continue this year as well, with revenue nearly doubling.

Sundeep Mohindru, Founder and CEO of M1Xchange, in an interview to YourStory, says M1Xchange’s revenues are set to cross Rs 100 crore in FY25, and profitability will continue to rise. He also aims to onboard 500 corporates and double the number of MSMEs on the platform in the current year.

Currently, M1xchange has 40,000 SMEs and 1,500 listed buyers on its platform.

What makes M1Xchange bullish about its growth prospects? Mohindru attributes this to growing awareness of invoice discounting as a viable financing option among small and medium businesses and the government’s support to MSMEs and thrust on exports.

Recently, the government reduced the turnover threshold for buyers to get on the TReDS platform —from Rs 500 crore to Rs 250 crore. This is likely to bring 7,000 companies onto the TReDS platforms, says Mohindru, who is also a promoter and director of the platform.

“With outstanding MSME dues exceeding Rs 21,000 crore, as reported on the Samadhan Portal, this significantly expands access to timely, structured financing options. It facilitates prompt payments for MSME goods and services, addressing a major pain point in the market.”

How TReDS works

Imagine you are an MSME supplying raw materials to a large corporate client. You’ve just delivered a shipment, but the payment is scheduled for 30 days later—a standard practice in the industry. 

However, you need working capital immediately to produce another batch of materials for another client, and asking for an advance is not an option.

Before 2017, your choices for addressing the working capital issue were limited. Typically, you’d approach a bank for a loan at a high interest rate, along with collateral requirements. But if your assets are already pledged against a prior loan, this can be a roadblock.

In 2017, the Reserve Bank of India introduced a solution: the trade receivables discounting system (TReDS). The platform allows you to convert trade receivables into cash without collateral. 

It enables you to sell your invoice for a large corporate client at a discount to banks or NBFCs that bid for the invoice. The financial institution that wins the bid disburses funds almost immediately. So, instead of waiting for 30 days or more for payment from the client, you have immediate cash for your working capital needs. 

On the due date, the corporate client pays the financial institution the original invoice amount.

From tackling early challenges to tasting success 

While M1xchange has clocked a strong financial performance in FY24, on the back of strategic operational efficiency, as detailed in its recent earnings report, its early days were not a cakewalk.

When TReDS was introduced, it was not easy to convince large corporate buyers to participate on the platform and validate invoices. 

“Initially, corporates were resistant, questioning as to why they should come on board for something that seemingly only benefitted SMEs,” Mohindru recalls.

“The rate of discount that the SMEs were getting on M1Xchange ranged between 7% and 10%, compared to the 12-15% interest they’d pay outside the platform. This saving was due to the corporate’s goodwill; so we encouraged SMEs to share a part of this saving with their corporate clients,” says Mohindru.

With SMEs sharing their savings, corporations saw a tangible financial benefit from participating on the platform. Over time, their initial hesitation gave way to fruitful engagement.

Due to the disruptions caused during the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain resilience became a priority, leading corporates to back SMEs to ensure continuity.

Corporations realised that supporting their suppliers enhanced their own supply chain’s resilience and digital efficiency. The end-to-end digital nature of the platform meant that every invoice approval, payment, and transaction could be monitored seamlessly, thus reducing the administrative overhead associated with traditional payment methods.

Mohindru emphasises, “Post-COVID, companies became more digital-savvy, realising that digitising their supply chain would bring cost reductions and efficiency.”

As a result, large corporates not only agreed to board the platform, they were also open to using their own credit score to enable SMEs to avail themselves of invoice discounts.

In the initial days, engagement from banks was also a challenge, as they were unaccustomed to the platform’s bidding model.

“The banks initially asked, Why should we bid? The SME needs money, and they come directly to our branches.”

However, Mohindru explains, banks soon realised that the platform allowed them to expand their SME portfolio without investing in physical branch infrastructure.

“Today, banks recognise this as a business opportunity with no overhead investment. They come onto our digital platform and access the entire customer base in one place,” he says.

This digital-first approach has attracted over 65 financial institutions, including SIDBI, SBI, and Yes Bank, all of whom actively bid on invoices, creating a competitive environment that ultimately benefits SMEs with lower financing costs.

The competitive bidding model has become a core strength of M1xchange, where invoices are openly bid upon, resulting in the best rates for SMEs, says Mohindru.

“On an average, we see three to four banks bidding on each invoice, driving down the cost of finance for SMEs … Banks are very aggressive now,” he notes.

Cross-border financing

In an extension of its service offering, M1xchange has launched a cross-border financing platform within India’s GIFT City, where international banks can also participate in financing Indian exports. 

This initiative aims to make export financing more accessible and affordable for Indian exporters, with discount rates that are typically 1-2% lower than domestic options. 

“International banks familiar with the buyer take on the credit risk and finance the transaction, providing liquidity to Indian exporters,” remarks Mohindru.

He is confident that cross-border trade financing will take off in the coming days, thanks to the government’s push to expand exports.

“The government has big aspirations for India to become a global leader, and exports are at the heart of this vision. For India to achieve its goal of becoming a $5-trillion economy, exports will need to grow many times over.”

The cross-border initiative marks the beginning of M1xchange’s global expansion plan. The platform has launched the TReDS solution in Nigeria and aims to expand further in Africa, leveraging the technology infrastructure that exists in India. 

“With the same system, we’ve been able to offer financing to Nigerian SMEs who are now able to discount invoices from Nigerian corporates. We’re exploring new African markets and expect to launch in more countries over the next 6-12 months,” says Mohindru. 

Competition

M1xchange competes with heavyweights in the market. RXIL is a joint venture between prominent financial institutions SIDBI, NSE, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, and Axis Bank. 

Another entity is Invoicemart, a digital invoice discounting platform by A. TREDS, a joint venture between Axis Bank and mjunction Services Ltd., a B2B ecommerce company.

RXIL, which reported a profit of Rs 8.5 crore in FY2022-23, is reportedly targeting a 35% share of India’s invoice discounting market this year. 

Despite growing competition, Mohindru is optimistic about the opportunities for M1Xchange.

“All platforms are doing well, and there’s no clear winner in the market as of now,” says Mohindru, highlighting that competition remains balanced within the regulated space. Each platform holds roughly an equal market share, he adds.

A relatively new platform is C2treds, operated by the US-based working capital platform C2FO.

Looking ahead

The director of M1Xchange believes that MSMEs and exporters are in for exciting times, bolstered by the various measures taken by the government and regulators to make financing easier and more accessible. 

“Our platform is one part of this effort, helping SMEs and exporters access financing from multiple sources and increasing liquidity in the system,” says Mohindru.

“What’s really exciting is how this de-risks SMEs. When an SME discounts an invoice, they don’t have to worry about delayed payments or defaults from their buyers—that’s between the bank and the buyer. This not only makes things smoother for the SME but also strengthens the overall ecosystem. With initiatives like these, the future of India’s export growth looks very promising.”