Safety and sustainability in the mining and manufacturing sector have been a matter of great concern worldwide for many decades. Runaya envisions being the partner of choice for best-in-class manufacturing and industrial services, leveraging technology to create sustainable solutions, concurrent with the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat (Make in India).
Founded in 2017 with the vision to deploy cutting-edge technology in the manufacturing sector in India, which is sustainable. A firm believer of ‘waste-to-wealth’ and ‘circular economy, the Agarwal brothers, have already initiated a sustainability and metal recovery project in Odisha, where 100% of Aluminium dross is processed into value-add products. Runaya also has a joint venture with Minova, the world leader in underground tunnel and mining support systems and is setting up a facility to manufacture Rock Bolts, Friction Bolts and Polymeric Resins in Bhilwara, Rajasthan. Additionally, Runaya also plans to set up a world-class Innovation Centre to make India the leader in technological innovation in the resources industry.
Led by these young under 30-entrepreneurs, the startup recently announced employing an 80% women workforce; symbolic of its commitment to a wholesome future with a diverse and sustainable outlook.
Runaya claims to be one of India’s fastest-growing manufacturing startups focused on creating sustainable solutions for the resources sector. Tell us about Runaya – the initiation and the journey so far.
Runaya was born in 2017 with the insight that sustainability and technology were going to be the biggest drivers of value creation in the manufacturing and resources industries. Our vision was to deploy cutting-edge technology in the manufacturing sector in India, providing sustainability and waste management solutions as well as safety products for infrastructure projects and underground mining.
We currently operate a metal recovery project in Odisha, where 100% of Aluminum dross is processed into value-added products. Runaya also has a joint venture with Minova, the world leader in underground tunnel and mining support systems and has set up a facility to manufacture Rock Bolts, Friction Bolts and Polymeric Resins.
Additionally, we are setting up a world-class Innovation Centre to make India the leader in technological innovation for the resources industry.
The group has two main verticals – sustainability solutions and niche manufacturing – what are the innovative solutions you have implemented in these two verticals?
Digitisation has made it possible for all of us today to inculcate sustainable practices faster and more effectively. At Runaya we are able to leverage our expertise to enable a circular economy by providing best in class solutions with industry low Carbon emissions and benchmark energy use.
We have transformed industrial waste such as aluminium dross, into value-added products for other industries. This prevents a significant amount of industrial waste from going into landfills, thereby eliminating the adverse impact it could have on communities, ecology, and climate. Our technology eliminates the use of any elements such as gas, water, salt, or heat to recover Aluminium from the dross, thereby making it one of the most environmentally friendly technologies in the world.
Runaya has also pioneered a ground-breaking product innovation in the form of ‘Restora Ultra’ (ultra-low carbon footprint Aluminium). This makes it the most sustainable Aluminium ever produced and has been received extremely positively by all our stakeholders.
What are the innovative processes and advanced technologies used by Runaya? Elaborate on the JVs and collaborations for the same.
Today, Runaya is one of India’s fastest-growing manufacturing start-ups focused on creating sustainable solutions for the resources sector and is acclaimed globally as a circular economy champion.
Our joint-venture, Minova Runaya Pvt. Ltd (MRPL), is a combination of Minova’s technical expertise and global reach with Runaya’s project and manufacturing capabilities, to manufacture and supply ground support products that will deliver transformational enhancements in safety standards across mining, infrastructure and tunnelling applications.
Runaya is also participating in “Digital India” and the 5G revolution through our Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) Rods business. Focusing on value added Products such as Aramid Rods, Flat FRP, Water Soluble FRP and Rough FRP, we are perfectly positioned to cater to both domestic and export markets.
Please explain the ‘Zero Waste Zero Discharge’ approach followed by Runaya
Runaya has created a one-of-a-kind business model for a start-up that recycles industrial waste to recover precious metals and convert them into value-added products. Since our operations began in 2019 we have converted approximately 2500 tonnes of Industrial waste into metal and value-added products, and the company increased its operational capacity to 40000 tonnes (16x) in just three years (including COVID times). Therefore, we can prevent over 40000 tonnes of industrial waste from going into landfills each year. The global dross industry is one mil tonnes a year and Runaya aspires to make an impact of three hundred million tonnes by 2025.
Runaya has created a one-of-a-kind business model for a start-up that recycles industrial waste to recover precious metals and convert them into value-added products. Since our operations began in 2019 we have converted approximately 2500 tonnes of Industrial waste into metal and value-added products, and the company increased its operational capacity to 40000 tonnes (16x) in just three years (including COVID times). Therefore, we can prevent over 40000 tonnes of industrial waste from going into landfills each year. The global dross industry is one mil tonnes a year and Runaya aspires to make an impact of three hundred million tonnes by 2025.
Runaya is investing in an ‘Innovation Centre’ at Jharsuguda in Odisha with a vision of making India the global hub for innovation in the resources sector. Could you tell us more about this initiative?
Runaya Group is aligned with India’s Atma Nirbhar mission for sustainable growth. There is a need for the development of a model that leads to the optimum utilization of resources. With a growing population, rapid urbanization, climate change and environmental pollution, India must move towards a circular economy.
The goal of our Innovation Centre is 3-fold.
The first objective is to identify the biggest challenges the resources industry faces globally and then partner with institutions to develop solutions that would allow us to solve these issues. For example, we currently have an ongoing project with IIT Kharagpur to understand how we could recover High Purity Alumina from Aluminium Dross.
The second objective is new product development. At our FRP plant in Silvassa, our Innovation Centre is focused on developing a best-in-class value-added product portfolio enabling us to provide our customers with an integrated solution rather than just selling them a product.
The third objective is to identify areas of efficiency improvement to reduce our business risk. For example, our Dross processing “Sarah Machines” came with a capacity to process 150MT of Dross per machine per month. Through Industry 4.0 initiatives and process streamlining done by our Innovation Centre, each machine can now process over 4000MT per month, leading to lower capital costs and increased efficiency.
Diversity at your Jharsuguda plant – comment.
At Runaya, we celebrate each individual’s uniqueness by cultivating an environment of inclusion and empowerment, leveraging our diverse fundamentals to enable everyone to participate, contribute, and grow holistically, and ultimately deliver sustainable competitive advantages. In consideration of our belief to have the best sustainable practices in the manufacturing industry, we have fully committed ourselves to ensure diversity and inclusion at the workplace. Today, we have industry leading gender diversity of over 50% across Runaya entities, including on the shop floor, and continue to drive towards increasing this further. We also focus our hiring to bring in more regional diversity with targeted programmes to employ people from states like Kashmir and the North Eastern state like Assam and Mizoram