Sachin Tendulkar, the former Indian cricket captain turned startup investor, has added Hyderabad-based cleantech company Recykal to his portfolio. Neither side has revealed how much he put in.
According to a report by Inc42, Recykal said the investment came through an extension of its $23 million bridge round, which the company had recently closed. The deal adds a widely recognised name to a cap table that already includes several large institutional and corporate backers.
How the Investment Fits Into Recykal's Funding
Recykal first disclosed its bridge round in June. That round combined $17.6 million in fresh equity with a $5.4 million secondary component, bringing the total to $23 million.
The secondary portion drew participation from existing investors and family offices. Tendulkar's money arrived later, as part of an extension to the same round.
Including this latest round, the company has raised more than $60 million since it was founded. Its backers include Morgan Stanley, 360 ONE, Circulate Capital and the Murugappa Group.
What Recykal Does
Recykal was started in 2016 by Abhay Deshpande, Abhishek Deshpande, Ekta Narain, Vikram Prabakar and Anirudha Jalan. Its core business is a business-to-business marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of recyclable materials.
Alongside the marketplace, the company sells software that lets brands track how their plastic and electronic waste is recycled. That data helps companies meet regulatory requirements around producer responsibility, a growing compliance burden for consumer goods and electronics makers in India.
Recykal says it works with a network of more than 5,000 waste aggregators and recyclers. It also claims around 650 enterprise brands as customers, naming Hindustan Unilever, Samsung and BMW among them.
A New Push Into Deposit Return Systems
The startup has also recently introduced a deposit return system, built around reverse vending machines that collect used consumer packaging.
Under this model, shoppers pay a small refundable deposit when they buy a product in a container. They get that deposit back when they return the empty container at a designated collection point, giving consumers a direct financial reason to recycle.
Revenue Growth Alongside Wider Losses
Recykal's top line has been expanding quickly. The company reported gross revenue of ₹1,498 crore for FY26, a 53.2% increase from ₹978 crore the year before.
Profitability remains out of reach for now. Losses rose 7% to ₹60 crore in FY26, up from ₹56 crore in FY25, suggesting the company is still spending to scale its operations and new services.
Tendulkar's Growing Startup Portfolio
In a statement, Tendulkar said the company's approach to an ordinary but persistent issue appealed to him. "What drew me to Recykal was seeing how technology was being used to solve an everyday problem," he said, adding that its goal of encouraging behavioural change across a billion people resonated with him.
The Recykal deal follows closely on another bet. Roughly two weeks earlier, Tendulkar invested in Metasports Interactive, the gaming company that makes the mobile cricket strategy title Hitwicket.
His earlier investments span several sectors, including used car marketplace Spinny, listed fintech company Kissht, and Ten X You, an activewear brand founded by former Swiggy Instamart executive Karthik Gurumurthy.
What the Deal Signals for Climate-Focused Founders
For Recykal, the financial value of the cheque matters less than the attention it brings. A celebrity investor can raise a startup's profile with consumers, which could prove useful as the company rolls out consumer-facing services like deposit return.
More broadly, the investment shows that recycling and waste compliance are drawing interest beyond specialist climate funds. For founders building in this space, a mix of strong revenue growth, enterprise customers and regulatory tailwinds appears to be attracting a wider pool of backers, even while losses persist.
Source: Inc42
