Karo Sambhav raises $6M seed round led by Rainmatter to scale critical-materials recycling
What's the deal? Karo SambhavDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, an Indian circular economy and recycling company, has raised $6M (Rs 56 crore) in a seed round led by Rainmatter, the climate-focused fund backed by Zerodha. The Gurugram-based company plans to use the capital to expand recycling infrastructure for recovering critical, precious, and high-value materials.
Founded in 2017 by Pranshu Singhal, Karo Sambhav operates across e-waste, batteries, glass, and other end-of-life material streams. It runs two recycling facilities, has channelled over 150,000 metric tonnes of waste for recycling, and built collection networks across more than 50 Indian cities.
The company has worked with over 50 corporations — including Apple, Dell Technologies, Cisco, and Canon — to support their recycled-content and sustainability goals.
Why now? India is the world's third-largest generator of e-waste, producing an estimated 4.1 million metric tonnes annually. Globally, that figure is projected to hit 82 million metric tonnes by 2030.
India's limited capacity to recover critical materials like indium, tin, and rare earth elements poses a strategic challenge for industries spanning AI, quantum computing, advanced electronics, and renewable energy. Shifting global supply chains and geopolitical tensions have made domestic recycling capabilities increasingly urgent.
Karo Sambhav's proposed new facility has received eligibility status under the National Critical Minerals Mission (NCMM) of the Ministry of Mines — a signal of government backing for the sector.
What could go wrong? The recycling space in India is crowded. Competitors include Rocklink India and NamoDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → in e-waste, BATXDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and LEO in battery recycling, and E-Parisara and Rubamin. Formalising India's vast informal recycling ecosystem — a core part of Karo Sambhav's mission — is a notoriously complex challenge involving deeply entrenched supply chains and labour dynamics.
The signal: Karo Sambhav, classified as a breakout-stage company on Dealroom, has taken eight years to reach this first institutional raise — a timeline that underscores how capital-intensive and operationally complex physical recycling infrastructure is compared with software plays. Rainmatter, categorised as a government and non-profit-aligned investor, backing a critical minerals recovery business signals that the thesis around domestic resource security is moving from policy rhetoric to actual cheque-writing in India.
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