This re-engineered tyre startup is solving India's burgeoning tyre pollution using deeptech

India’s booming tyre manufacturing industry has a dark side—toxic waste.

The country is among the top global tyre producers, with the sector poised to double its revenue to $22 billion by fiscal 2032 from $9 billion in fiscal 2022, according to Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association (ATMA).

Currently, India handles around 2.8 million metric tonnes (domestic and imported) of tyre waste a year.

Gurugram-based REGRIP is on a mission to reduce this waste via sustainable tyre recycling.

Founded by Tushar Suhalka in 2021 with an investment of Rs 10 lakh, Regrip is a re-engineered/refurbished tyre startup that uses quality grade rubber to make refurbished tyres through shearing and retreading.

The tyres, which have around 80% of the lifespan of new tyres and cost about half, are used by small and medium trucking companies. For context, new tyres start at around Rs 25,000 on an average.

“Retreading is a process quite common amongst truckers amongst unorganised markets. However, most of those are done in a shoddy way resulting in road accidents. We integrated a system in the process as well as automated the facilities to ensure the retreading done is safe for the transporters as well as the environment,” the founder says.

Suhalka, who was a CA aspirant before he turned entrepreneur, says his startup journey has been bumpy.

“The tyre industry is very much unregulated in terms of taxation and everything else. The government had no direct control and there was no standardisation on the quality of what the small local shops were selling. So there we felt a lot of heat from the locals as we were taking off their market share too,” he adds.

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Regrip says it has regularised and standardised the refurbishing process and it deals with only heavy commercial vehicles as of now. It currently has no competition in the organised sector, according to the founder.

The technology

Backed by celebrity investor Suniel Shetty, Regrip says it leverages deep tech to assess tyre reusability and preventive check models to maximize tyre lifespan.

“Our predictive technology assesses discarded tyres' remaining life, enabling us to refurbish reusable ones, thus reducing the demand for new tyres. Those deemed unsuitable for refurbishment are directed to recycling units where we extract valuable resources such as fuel oil, carbon black, and steel,” says Suhalka.

According to Suhalka, India currently has no mechanism to trace old tyres or ascertain their price.

Regrip has built an application around this. The startup employs computer vision to inspect discarded tyres and determine if they can be refurbished. If they are suitable for reuse, the system also estimates the price at which they can be traded in the aftermarket.

Suhalka says, “Our technology is pricing the old tyre once its discarded. Secondly it checks if the tyre has the strength and capacity to be reused or not. The reusable ones we sell under our own brand name as refurbished tyres.”

Market opportunities and business model

Regrip operates in a B2B (business-to-business) model where it sells its tyres to dealer partners.

With a team size of over 100 members, the startup has 13 facilities for re-engineering of tyres across India spread across Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.

The startup declined to disclose its revenue numbers, instead, it said it has recycled about 1,00,000 truck tyres so far.

Last month, Regrip raised $2 million in funding led by Qatar-based venture capital firm Sirious One, Inflection Point Ventures, and Let's Venture. Overall the company has raised $ 2.5 million so far. It has also announced an exit to seed investor IIMA Ventures.

The startup is also backed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Govt of Rajasthan.

For Regrip, the potential to grow is substantial. The global tyre recycling market size was valued at $12 billion in 2018, and is projected to reach $18 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 3.3% from 2023 to 2032.

"Regrip is an effort I am very proud of. Of the 1.5 billion tyres discarded annually, only 20% are recycled. The rest are discarded - mostly in landfills, that have a catastrophic impact on our environment. This is where Tushar and his team are pioneering the circular economy principles within the tyre industry in India," said actor Suniel Shetty.

Speaking about future plans, Suhalka states, “Regrip is on the road to creating Asia's largest tyre recycling brand in the next five years. We understand the impact that we are making not just in the industry but also on earth. We aim to recycle more than 10 lakh tyres in years to come.”