Here's why Anand Mahindra wants to fund this up-and-coming Indian start-up

Mahindra Group chairperson and Padma awardee Anand Mahindra is known for encouraging young entrepreneurs and up-and-coming start-ups on his social media. There was, however, one start-up that escaped his radar so far. “Embarassed I didn’t know about this inspiring start-up. These are the kinds of start-ups we need to cheer on – not just the obvious unicorns. I’m going to buy a pair today. (Can someone tell me the best way to get them?) And when he raises funds – count me in!,” Mahindra tweeted.

Green Belt and Road Institute president Erik Solheim also tweeted about this start-up. “This is awesome! A start-up in India is making these sneakers (a $70 billion market) are made of garbage (12 plastic bottles and handful of trash bags). And for $110, they will be shipped anywhere in the world,” Solheim wrote.

This start-up is known as Thaely and was developed by Ashay Bhave to produce ethically developed sneakers that use components recycled from waste materials. These materials are recycled plastic bottles, upcycled plastic bags, ThaelyTex (fabric made of upcycled plastic bags) and vegan glue. ThaelyTex is made using 10 upcycled plastic bags in collaboration with TrioTap Technologies in Gurugram.

Thaely utilises woven RPET fabric on the toe box and tongue regions which make the shoes airy. The woven RPET fabric is made from recycling waste PET plastic bottles and is the same as virgin polyester in terms of quality. They also use and extra thick insole made of recycled rubber to add more comfort, as per the Thaely website.  

Plantable recycled paper embedded with basil seeds and dyed with waste coffee grounds is used to design the Thaely Y2K Pro boxes used for delivering the shoes. These shoes are manufactured at Nitush Footwear in Punjab’s Jalandhar.

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