In conversation with Akash Keshav, Co-founder & CEO, Sprih, a breakthrough Climate-Tech startup which is empowering mid-to-large enterprises to streamline their sustainability efforts.
Tell us what your company Sprih is all about
At Sprih, we are building a software solution to support companies throughout their sustainability journey. Leveraging the power of AI, our platform streamlines everything from data collection to insights, making sustainability management seamless and auditable for our customers. Our goal is to make the entire process efficient and effective, driven by AI, to help our customers achieve their sustainability goals.
Could you talk about the complex sustainability challenges faced by mid-to-large enterprises across industries like manufacturing and finance?
Sustainability challenges differ across sectors and company sizes. For a top 100 manufacturing company, data management is a major challenge, especially when it comes to submitting supply chain data. It’s complex because it goes beyond organizational boundaries, and human behavior plays a role in data quality. Supporting suppliers is crucial here, and that's where tech can significantly help. For mid-size companies supplying to big companies, responding to different data requests in various formats is a pain point. Tech can make this process seamless. Decarbonization complexity also varies by sector—straightforward for IT, but different for industries like steel due to unique energy requirements. Our solution aims to make sustainability management easy for all stakeholders, regardless of sector or size.
Can you elaborate on how Sprih’s AI engine—SustainSense, enhances the accuracy and efficiency of carbon emissions measurement and reporting?
Our SustainSense engine is a result of two years of effort to help companies accelerate their sustainability journey. We have built it to address the fragmentation in sustainability data, where each country and company has its own regulations and reporting formats. SustainSense helps us bring all data points into one system, enabling us to provide valuable insights to our customers. For instance, a steel company in Europe might be using innovative solutions that can benefit our customers. Our system can identify such best practices and suggest them to similar companies using our platform. When it comes to data, high-quality data is crucial for creating effective decarbonization plans. Our system ensures that companies capture the right data points and provides data quality checks. We also use our engine to find data gaps and identify solutions that fit our customers’ budgets and have a high impact on decarbonization. One key use case is supply chain management, where we help suppliers translate data into formats required by their customers, making the process seamless for both parties. We are exploring more use cases for SustainSense, including climate risk assessment and supplier risk assessment.
What are Sprih’s plans for expanding its presence in regions like Europe and the Middle East, where demand for sustainability solutions is growing rapidly?
We have already expanded to the USA, with customers and ongoing discussions with large companies. We are also actively expanding into the European market, while managing the Middle East from India. Our approach is to build in India and sell globally, which has been beneficial. We are hiring locally in Europe and the USA to understand local markets and regulations, supporting our product development and sales teams. Product development and research will continue in India. We are on the right path, with billion-dollar customers and top Fortune 500 companies already using our platform.
