Runaya, a manufacturing startup, will go live with its new factory to recover minor metals in the next six months. Speaking to businessline, Naivedya Agarwal, co-founder and CEO, said that they have planned a capex of ₹150 crore for the new factory for FY23.
The facility will be set up in Rajasthan and will be spread over 8.5 hectares with a production capacity of 50,000 million tonnes per annum. The company intends to expand into three different business verticals: minor metals recovery (MMR) aluminium powder business, and magnet business.
“Out of these three, MMR is on the final stage, and we are planning to set up a facility to process three minor metals. Out of the 30–40 minor metals left behind during the extraction process, initially, we plan to recover 8–9 minor metals. In the long run, i.e., 7-8 years from now, we will be a solutions provider with a boutique technology set,” said Agarwal.
The company expects to be able to recover around 35 minor metals, which have a wide range of end-use applications across different industries, such as EV batteries and automobiles.
Ruanya operates two business verticals: sustainability solutions and niche manufacturing. Currently, the company, uses dross processing technology to recover aluminium and also manufactures slag briquettes at its aluminum smelter facility in Jharsuguda, Odisha.
“From the dross received, we recover 40 per cent aluminium by weight, which is pure metallic aluminum. Currently, we are recovering about 16,000 tonnes of aluminium every year and have a current capacity to process 40,000 tonnes of dross,” he explained.
Funding
On the company’s plans for raising funds, Agarwal noted that they are comfortable from the funding aspect. Runaya, was founded by the Agarwal brothers, Naivedya and Annanya, sons of Navin Agarwal, brother of Vedanta’s chairman Anil Agarwal.
“Our current funding comes from a combination of equity and debt, with equity provided by our promoters Annanya and Naivedya and debt provided by financial institutions. Moreover, all our businesses are cashflow positive from year one on, and we have a 30 per cent EBITDA margin, pretty much a weighted average across the portfolio. Our internal cash flows should be more than sufficient to fund any CAPEX needs.”
The startup expects to close this year with a revenue of ₹400 crore. Going forward, the CEO said that they see a significant growth from its upcoming facility in Rajasthan and other businesses. Broadly, sustainability contributes 50 per cent of its revenues, while the other 50 per cent comes from niche manufacturing business.
For its niche manufacturing business, Runaya has a joint venture with Minova, a supplier for underground tunnel and mining support systems, to manufacture rock bolts, friction bolts, and polymeric resins in Bhilwara, Rajasthan.