Ankita Vijayvergiya journey into climate action began during the COVID-19 pandemic, where she found herself questioning the impact of her corporate work.
The pandemic opened her eyes to the urgency of environmental issues, particularly food waste. Alongside her brother Nikhil, she co-founded Nature Healers, a venture aimed at promoting sustainable lifestyles. This was just the beginning of her climate journey, and soon, they set their sights on a larger mission—turning food waste into climate action solutions.
In 2023, Ankita and Nikhil Vijayvergiya founded BillionCarbon a climate tech startup born from years of climate activism and research. Their goal? To transform food waste, a significant contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, into valuable resources, thereby helping to reduce the carbon footprint of the food supply chain.
Leveraging innovative Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL) technology, they developed a three-day waste treatment process that converts food waste into nutrient-rich biofertilizers and insect protein without producing waste.
This breakthrough allows for the recycling of food waste into resources that can enrich the soil and reduce dependency on chemical fertilizers, thereby tackling soil degradation—a problem affecting over 40% of the world’s agricultural land.
Ankita’s dedication to climate tech goes beyond her startup. She believes that to achieve impactful climate action, solutions need to be profitable and scalable within a capitalist framework.
For her, entrepreneurship in climate tech is about using existing technologies in smarter, more effective ways. BillionCarbon’s unique bioreactors, powered by IoT, enable precise climate control to accelerate the waste-to-resource process, positioning the company at the forefront of sustainable innovation.
Despite the challenging demands of being an entrepreneur and a mother, Ankita’s resilience shines through.
She advocates for more inclusive work environments that support caregivers, emphasizing that supportive policies like workplace crèches and breastfeeding spaces are essential for enabling women to pursue careers without compromising family commitments.
BillionCarbon’s impact has been recognized on an international scale. In 2024, the startup joined a sustainability accelerator run by Accelerating Asia and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), focused on empowering women-led climate tech startups.
During a pitch at the ESCAP Feminist Finance Forum, Ankita won a seed grant to scale BillionCarbon’s operations, bringing them one step closer to their ambitious goal of reducing one billion tons of CO2 emissions by 2030.
As the world grapples with environmental challenges, BillionCarbon stands as a beacon of hope and action, showing that a sustainable future is within reach.
Madhuri Awande
Visit our website: https://lnkd.in/dwVWAA33
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