After His Father Gave Him Rs 1000 & Shut the Door, He Built a Rs 1 Cr Eco-Friendly Startup

“One day, I came back home after yet another job rejection,” Basavaraj S told The Better India, pausing before adding, “That’s when my father handed me Rs 1,000 and said, ‘Don’t come back.’”

That moment — painful, humiliating, and deeply personal — became a turning point in Basavaraj S’s life. With nothing more than a shattered sense of worth and Rs 1,000, he boarded a bus to Bengaluru.

He made two promises to himself as he left his village behind: he would never return until he had built something of his own. And he would do it within 10 years.

Door to door, rejection to recognition

Bengaluru wasn’t kind at first. With no connections, no capital, and barely a plan, Basavaraj began knocking on doors — quite literally.

“In the early stages, I used to visit individual companies and do a minimum of 20 to 25 cold calls every day,” he said. “Nowadays we are talking about cold calls through telemarketing, but I am talking about individual meetings, and knocking on the doors of each company.”

Through relentless effort, he eventually found his rhythm in sales and soon earned recognition. “While I was good at my sales job, I always felt like I was here for something bigger,” he added.

With Rs 55,000 saved through sheer determination, Basavaraj launched Kambar Products and Services, a company that supplied uniforms, safety gear, and office merchandise.

Over the next 18 years, he turned Kambar into a multi-crore enterprise, but the hunger to do something with deeper purpose never left.

A new purpose born from a crisis

The pandemic made everyone pause. For Basavaraj, it became a moment of reckoning.

“After COVID-19, we were looking for unique ideas that resonated with the changing times. There was a growing awareness about living sustainably. I asked myself, how can I contribute in my own way, through my business?”

And that’s when the idea clicked: corporate gifting, but greener. What if every welcome kit handed to new employees didn’t end up in the trash? What if it actually helped the planet?

Welcome kits that don’t end up in landfills

“Typically, a new joinee gets a bottle, a pen, a notebook, and a mug,” Basavaraj explains.
“I thought, how can we replace these with sustainable options? How can we offer a greener choice?”

In 2022, he launched Rafter, a venture that creates beautiful, sustainable gifting products: bamboo bottles instead of plastic, notebooks made from recycled or plantable paper, and mugs crafted from rice husk, an agricultural byproduct.

And people are noticing.

Sustainability without the greenwashing

Rafter’s products are not mass-produced in factories. Instead, Basavaraj partners with small, sustainability-focused producers across cities like Mysuru, Delhi, Gurugram, and Bengaluru.

“We work directly with makers who believe in this eco-friendly approach.”

He has no formal R&D team — he is the R&D. “We do not have a formal research and development department,” he says. “I brainstorm, seek advice from experts, and keep experimenting to fine-tune our products.”

Each item — whether a plantable pen or a bamboo amplifier — is selected with intention and designed to be reused, recycled, or cherished.

The rice husk mug that started conversations

“These mugs are made from rice husk, an agricultural byproduct, which is usually discarded,” Basavaraj explains.

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Sourced from Mysuru, the mugs are microwave-safe, durable, and available in seven to nine earthy colours. They’ve become a signature product — durable enough for 5,000 washes and lasting up to three years.

“Our cups can easily withstand around 5,000 washes and remain durable for a minimum of three years,” shares Shankara BG of Spectrus Sustainable Solutions, one of Rafter’s long-time partners.

Convincing companies that green can be premium

Still, building Rafter hasn’t been easy. Sustainable products often cost more, and don’t always seem “cool” to young employees expecting trendy gadgets.

“While everyone talks about sustainability, people who act on it are fewer,” Basavaraj admits “It was very difficult to begin with.”

To bridge the gap, Rafter’s strategy was education and presentation. The packaging is sleek and thoughtful, made of recycled paper with magnetic closures. “We want the box to be something people will keep and reuse to store accessories, not just throw away.”

Each hamper is custom-curated with branding, personalisation, and design that makes the recipient feel like they’re receiving something premium, not a compromise.

The impact so far

Rafter has now sold over 5,000 welcome kits and thousands more individual mugs, bottles, and notebooks. The company has clocked around Rs 1 crore in revenue, working with major clients like Infosys, Applied Materials, Lowe’s, TES India, CannaMental, and more.

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But for Basavaraj, it’s not just about revenue — it’s about changing habits. “We create products that avoid going to landfills,” he says. “That’s the real impact.”

Rafter’s curated hampers even include bamboo fibre T-shirts and Tirupur-made clothing from recycled PET bottles. The company is now exploring hemp fabrics and even bio-leather made from tomatoes.

A bigger vision: more than just gifting

“We want Rafter to be the first name that comes to mind when people think of sustainable gifting,” Basavaraj shares. “Eventually, we want to build it into a lifestyle brand.”

For a man once turned away from his own home with Rs 1,000 and a broken dream, Rafter isn’t just a company. It’s a quiet revolution — proving that you can turn pain into purpose, build a business that makes money and meaning, and offer the world a better way to give.

Explore Rafter’s sustainable gifting range here

Edited by Leila Badyari Castelino; All images courtesy Rafter