Circular economy and recycling startup Karo Sambhav has raised Rs 56 crore in a funding round from Rainmatter, the investment and sustainability initiative backed by Zerodha, as it looks to expand infrastructure for recovering critical minerals and valuable materials from electronic waste.

The Gurugram-based company said the capital will be used to scale recycling infrastructure focused on extracting critical, precious and high-value materials from end-of-life products, with an initial focus on e-waste.

Founded in 2017 by Pranshu Singhal, Karo Sambhav has operated as a bootstrapped company for nearly nine years. The company runs two recycling facilities and has built collection networks across more than 50 cities. It said it has recycled over 150,000 metric tonnes of waste across categories such as electronic waste, batteries, glass and other end-of-life material streams.


"India's manufacturing future will require reliable access to critical, precious and high-value materials. Many of these materials are already present in products that have reached the end of life," Singhal, founder and chief executive officer of Karo Sambhav said.

He added that Karo Sambhav has spent the last nine years building the operating base to collect, recycle and trace these material streams responsibly.

The latest funding comes at a time when policymakers and industry are increasingly focused on securing domestic supplies of critical minerals and reducing dependence on imports.

Materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite are key inputs for batteries and electric mobility, while rare earth elements are used in motors, magnets and advanced manufacturing applications. Precious metals, including gold, silver, platinum group metals, copper and tantalum are widely used in electronics and printed circuit boards.

"Karo Sambhav has demonstrated patient execution and systems-level impact in a difficult sector. We are pleased to support its next phase of growth as it scales infrastructure for critical material recovery and circular manufacturing in India," said Viraj Joshi, vice president, legal and regulatory, Zerodha.

India is currently the world's third-largest generator of electronic waste, producing an estimated 4.1 million metric tonnes annually, according to company estimates. Globally, annual e-waste generation is projected to reach 82 million tonnes by 2030, highlighting both the environmental challenge and the growing opportunity to recover valuable materials from discarded electronics, the company said in a statement.

The investment marks Rainmatter's latest bet in the sustainability and climate-focused ecosystem, where investors are increasingly backing businesses working on waste management, resource efficiency, recycling and circular manufacturing.