Pernod Ricard India Foundation helps more than 75 start-ups through its social innovation vertical
Mangaluru
The Social Innovation and Transformation vertical of the Pernod Ricard India Foundation (PRIF), the CSR arm of Pernod Ricard India, has supported more than 75 start-ups, diverted over 4.6 lakh kg of plastic and 94,780 kg of agri-waste from landfills, and created more than 400 sustainable livelihoods across the country, according to a media statement.
It said that PRIF is strengthening India’s circular economy and climate innovation ecosystem through its Social Innovation and Transformation vertical with three incubation programmes — Prakriti Incubation Launchpad with IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, Circular Economy Incubator with NSRCEL-IIM Bangalore, and ADVAYA-Plastic Circularity Innovation Launchpad with SIIC-IIT Kanpur.
This initiative reflects PRIF’s commitment to accelerating climate-smart, inclusive, and regionally anchored innovation under its Social Innovation and Transformation vertical. This is an important thematic area for PRIF as India is the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. With agriculture still contributing significantly to the economy, there is a pressing need to help farmers adapt and mitigate climate threats, it said.
Despite more than 100 government-recognised incubators, a few Indian start-ups focus on green innovation, with minimal representation from underserved regions such as the North-East and rural India. PRIF’s incubation programmes are designed to bridge this gap by equipping early-stage ventures with structured incubation, technical mentorship, networking, funding access, and scale-up opportunities, aligned with India’s net-zero vision and circular economy roadmap, it said.
Building a national pipeline
Quoting Gagandeep Sethi, Senior Vice President – Integrated Operations and Sustainability and Responsibility, Pernod Ricard India, the statement said: “At Pernod Ricard India Foundation, our vision is to make sustainability and innovation work hand in hand. By collaborating with India’s leading academic institutions, we’re enabling entrepreneurs to turn challenges like waste and resource scarcity into opportunities for innovation, employment, and impact. These incubation platforms are not only nurturing green start-ups but also helping build a national pipeline of scalable, climate-smart solutions that can deliver true triple-bottom-line impact. Our efforts are aimed at strengthening India’s position as a leader in circular entrepreneurship and inclusive, sustainable growth.”
The Prakriti Incubation Launchpad, in partnership with IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, aims to cultivate a thriving green entrepreneurship ecosystem in North-East India by nurturing high-impact scalable enterprises rooted in circularity and indigenous knowledge. Start-ups are trained on incubation, capacity-building, and fund management. They are capacitated on networking, fund raising and marketing through curated mentorship sessions and real world business applicability. The ventures focus on sustainable packaging, waste processing, local alternatives to plastic, and enabling traditional and regional products.
The statement said the project onboarded 12 early-stage green start-ups and community-led enterprises in cohort 1. The cohort focuses on a 10-month comprehensive incubation programme with networking and mentorship, and up to ₹20 lakh in grant funding per venture.
The Circular Economy Incubator, in partnership with NSRCEL-IIM Bengaluru, focuses on scaling impact-led start-ups in plastic and glass circularity, and climate smart agriculture, alternative materials and waste management. Launched in 2023, the partnership has successfully supported 46 ventures in the last two cohorts. Across two-cohorts, the incubated ventures secured follow-on funding of ₹42.6 crore, reported 65 per cent increase in revenue and generated 400-plus direct livelihoods. It said that 50 per cent of incubated ventures are led or co-led by women entrepreneurs. Over 4.6 lakh kg of plastic waste recycled/diverted from going to landfills and 94,780 kg of agri-waste recycled so far.
The ADVAYA Plastic Circularity Innovation Launchpad, in partnership with Startup Incubation and Innovation (SIIC) – IIT Kanpur, focuses on deep-tech early-stage innovation in plastic circularity and alternative materials and provides tech-first scalable solutions along with access to FIRST – IIT – Kanpur mentorship, infrastructure, labs, networking with research departments and institutions like CIPET. There is a special focus on helping startups to move across technology readiness levels and advance closer to market deployment.
Published on January 16, 2026
