Startup interview: Namrata Sandhu, Co-founder and CEO, Vaayu

RTIH gets the lowdown on Vaayu, a startup specialising in carbon tracking software company for retailers which recently raised $1.57 million in pre-seed funding.

RTIH: Tell us about yourself

NS: I have worked in sustainability my entire career and it's an issue very close to my heart.

I began working with Arcadia Group before becoming Head of Sustainability for Zalando and prior to that helped multiple businesses in a consulting capacity to become more sustainable.

I began Vaayu in 2020 with my co-founders, Anita Daminov and Luca Schmid, to help online retailers track and cut their carbon emissions in real-time.

RTIH: What was the inspiration behind setting the brand up?

NS: My experience working with retailers shed light on just how expensive and hard sustainability reporting is, even for the brands with the best of intentions.

With Vaayu, we want to democratise the process for those who do not have the money or in-house expertise by making it easy and affordable for every brand to understand their carbon emissions and where they can make significant reductions.

RTIH: What has been the industry reaction thus far?

NS: The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive because we are giving brands the tools they need to take meaningful action on climate change.

Most importantly, brands are getting access to data that they have not had to date.

This empowers them to think about carbon emissions in the context of their broader business operations so they can take take bigger steps.

For example, reducing the size of packaging while understanding both the environmental and financial cost of that.

Today we attended the #ClimateStrike in Berlin. Everyone was striking peacefully, keeping their distance. Seeing so many people out on a wet, rainy day to stand up against #climatechange leaves us feeling hopeful. We can fix this, together#ClimateAction #ClimateActionNow pic.twitter.com/x2HFyYEyUZ
— Vaayu (@vaayutech) September 25, 2020

RTIH: What has been your biggest challenge/setback?

NS: Our biggest challenge so far has been accessing thorough and reliable datasets to build the product.

The data that currently exists still has many gaps so there are limitations to work around.

This can mean pulling data from multiple expert sources, which is a significant amount of work, or partnering with universities to fill the research gaps.

RTIH: What are the biggest challenges facing the omnichannel retail sector right now?

NS: Most retail product categories lend themselves to consumer touch and feel before a purchasing decision is made.

This has been hugely impacted by the pandemic and the general shift towards digital and e-commerce.

Not only is this a challenge from a business perspective, but the digital world brings with it a number of environmental challenges which businesses are only just beginning to understand.

RTIH: What's the best question about your brand asked of you recently by an investor?

NS: What is the first step I should take in my supply chain if I want to reduce my carbon footprint?

RTIH: What can we expect to see of Vaayu over the next 12 months?

NS: Alongside our goal of enabling more brands to cut their carbon footprint at scale, the big thing we are working on in the coming months is a way of allowing brands to calculate their carbon footprint per product and quantify that to understand their impact on a granular level.

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