Former Mrs India's startup going green

Visakhapatnam: Having experience in diverse fields, former Mrs India Shilpa Reddy started her entrepreneurial journey with SustainKart, an e-commerce marketplace exclusively for sustainable product brands for environment-conscious consumers. She is a model, fashion designer, influencer, fitness expert, entrepreneur, and a promoter of natural farming and sustainable living.

She, along with SustainKart Co-Founder Kanthi Dutt, participated in a fireside chat with Crayon Data Co-Founder Ivaturi Vijaya Kumar, on the sidelines of a panel discussion on " Startup: Is there an India template for startups?" during the second day of Bizz Buzz Business Conclave (BBBC) here on Saturday.

In January 2022, Shilpa Reddy and Kanthi Dutt founded clean and green products aggregator SustainKart, in which film actress Samantha Ruth Prabhu also invested an undisclosed amount. The Hyderabad-based startup offers an array of sustainable and eco-friendly products ranging from fashion to home decor, beauty and wellness, furnishings to gifting, nutrition and snacks.

When the moderator asked Shilpa Reddy, why she joined the venture when she could have supported it, she said that her journey started eight years back towards sustainability, and she felt that SustainKart was a platform where she could work on what she was doing on the social handles on fitness, upcycling and recycling.

Meanwhile, Vijaya Kumar asked Kanthi Dutt on how he got this idea, he responded: "We started with a chit chat show. We were getting queries from the viewers about sustainable products. We used to refer to Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa and Myntra. Soon, we realised that authenticity is required. So, the idea came into shape and the business started growing."