Two Bengaluru Innovators Saved 10000 Kg Textile Waste & Cut 35000 Kg CO₂ With AI Tech

“We saw Kadwa sarees being sold for nearly Rs 50,000, but the artisans who wove them struggled to earn even a fraction of that. Their creations travelled the world, but their lives never changed,” says Vijaya Kumar Krishnappa.

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He recalls visiting weaving communities where a master craftsperson would hesitate before cutting cloth for testing because even a metre of silk cost more than their daily wage. “The beauty of the saree was celebrated everywhere,” he continues, “except in the home where it was woven.”

This long-standing disquiet, a mixture of sadness and indignation, became the invisible thread that eventually stitched KOSHA.ai into existence. And it began with an unlikely encounter.

An ordinary run, an extraordinary idea

It was an ordinary morning run in Bengaluru, the kind when the world feels suspended in an unrushed, undulating calm, when Vijaya crossed paths with Ramki (Ramakrishna) Kodipady, a seasoned electronics engineer with decades of experience in complex technological systems. A passing greeting evolved into a conversation, which in turn became a dialogue that outlasted the run itself.

“We began speaking about the frustrations we had internalised for years,” Ramki tells The Better India. “Why was the textile ecosystem so opaque? Why was the truth so hard to establish? And could technology ever serve the smallest producers instead of just the biggest corporations?”

Their backgrounds aligned flawlessly: Vijaya with his experience in textiles, clusters, and artisan livelihoods; Ramki with his ability to build tough and scalable systems.

“I remember thinking, here is someone who sees the same cracks in the system, and refuses to accept them as inevitable,” Ramki adds. That day, without any formal plan, KOSHA.ai began its slow but determined emergence.

Technology as the conservator of truth

By the time KOSHA.ai was formally introduced in 2020, counterfeiting had become rampant. Inferior powerloom products masqueraded as handloom, and fibre blends were misrepresented as pure silk. Even seasoned buyers were misled.

“Weavers told us that customers simply didn’t believe them anymore. And without trust, their livelihood collapsed,” Vijaya says.

“We believe circularity begins with truth. If you cannot identify a fibre, you cannot recycle it. If you cannot prove authenticity, artisans cannot earn fairly. Technology must be the custodian of truth,” Ramki says.

This urgency inspired KOSHA to develop WeaveSENSE, an IoT device that attaches directly to handlooms. Following early prototypes in 2020 and an MVP completed in April 2021, WeaveSENSE was officially launched in 2022.

The device captures loom-specific signatures, weaving rhythms, timestamps, and short videos, all of which are converted into a tamper-proof digital provenance trail. A QR code on the final product allows customers to view real-time clips of how their saree or fabric was woven.

Few embraced this more wholeheartedly than Biraja Handloom Producer Company in Jajpur. Its CEO, Ranjan Guin, speaks with conviction shaped by experience, “Earlier, buyers doubted whether our products were genuinely handmade. With WeaveSENSE, we show them the weaving video itself. The customer feels justified paying a premium, and we feel dignified proving the authenticity of our craft.”

This was KOSHA’s first victory, not of technology over tradition, but of technology safeguarding it.

Upcycling industrial by-products

While WeaveSENSE addressed authenticity, a more complex crisis had been festering. Recyclers and waste handlers struggled with the imprecision of manual sorting.

“Workers showed us how they guessed fibre types by touch,” Vijaya recalls. “In today’s world of sophisticated synthetics, that method cannot work.”

Accuracy often hovered around 60 percent, far too low for recyclers needing precise compositions for yarn-making, felt production, or chemical recycling. Batches were frequently rejected, causing losses for workers and recyclers alike.

The crisis triggered FibreSENSE’s journey — from lab work in June 2023 to a prototype in February 2024, and paid pilots by September 2024. This momentum ultimately resulted in the MVP and full product launch in April 2024, turning early research into a practical, market-ready solution.

The device employs near-infrared spectroscopy paired with AI-driven chemometric modelling to identify fibre composition in seconds. By projecting near-infrared light onto a textile sample, it detects unique absorption and reflection patterns, essentially creating a “molecular signature” for each fibre.

“Every fibre speaks a different language,” Ramki explains. “FibreSENSE is the interpreter. In seconds, it tells you whether a fabric is cotton, polyester, wool, silk, viscose, or a blend, and in what proportion.”

Unlike laboratory testing, FibreSENSE is non-destructive, cost-effective, and immediate. By integrating it with KOSHA’s traceability platform, recyclers, brands, and regulators can track materials across the lifecycle — from origin to sorting, recycling, and CO₂ savings.

In Kozhikode, Green Worms Waste Management Enterprise, which handles dry waste across 12 districts, was among the first to adopt FibreSENSE. Project Head Gopika Santhosh describes the improvement, “Earlier, something that looked like cotton turned out to be rayon. We were often wrong. After KOSHA’s device came in, our team felt informed. They could see results instantly, and it validated their judgement.”

She continues, “FibreSENSE helps us supply exactly what recyclers or paper-makers need, like 80 to 90 percent polyester, or specific cotton–poly ratios for felt. It has made us more accurate and more confident in what we do.”

Perhaps most strikingly, the community itself began to change. “Once we realised eight percent of household dry waste was textiles, we launched awareness campaigns. Now households segregate textiles properly. People finally understand textile waste has value,” she adds.

Collaborating for sustainability and social equity

One of KOSHA.ai’s most ambitious collaborations has been with Creative Dignity, led by Meera Goradia, a revered figure in India’s craft ecosystem. Meera describes her early interactions with the startup warmly, “What struck me was that they were a deep-tech team with extraordinary empathy. They understood the smallest producer, something rare in technology circles.”

Together, they launched a pilot analysing 50 looms in Rajasthan, quantifying the sustainability footprint of handloom for the first time. “We want to map carbon emissions and water use, and capture social and cultural value, including employment, community cohesion, and dignity of labour,” Meera explains. “Handloom has always been sustainable, but now we will have the data to prove it.”

This collaboration is already shaping a vision for a sector-wide sustainability framework rooted in Indian realities.

The numbers tell a human story

In just seven months since FibreSENSE’s commercial rollout, KOSHA has achieved remarkable milestones:

• 10,000 kg of textile waste diverted from landfills

• 35,000 kg of CO₂ emissions prevented

• 1,200+ artisans empowered through WeaveSENSE

• 5,000 ESG credentials verified across clusters and partners

Yet the founders stress that numbers alone cannot capture the essence of their work.

“We never started with the ambition of ‘impact metrics,’” Vijaya says. “Our work grew because the ecosystem needed honesty — in fibres, in labour, and in sustainability claims.”

“Every recognition, from the H&M Foundation, Social Alpha, Villgro, Mercedes-Benz, or even the Prime Minister’s mention at Mann Ki Baat, came because of the work happening quietly in clusters,” Ramki adds.

Among the most moving testimonies are those from artisans themselves. At Biraja Handloom, CEO Ranjan explains the change vividly, “Customers now see how our sarees come to life. They see the artisan’s hands and efforts.”

Sudhanshu, a silk Ikat artisan from Odisha, echoes similar sentiments regarding the introduction of technology into his craft, “Earlier, authenticity was guesswork. Now we have clarity. It feels good to know we are right. The customer sees the different processes of making his product and the exact material used in it. When I go to exhibitions, customers scan this and see — they are happy, and they end up buying the saree.”

Circularity as a human imperative

Circularity has often been framed as a technological or environmental necessity, but KOSHA views it as fundamentally human.

Vijaya says, “We began this journey because we could not bear the idea that artisans who made exquisite products earned so little. Today, whether it is waste pickers in Kerala or weavers in Odisha, the aim remains the same: to give people back their agency.”

KOSHA.ai’s journey — from an unplanned conversation during a run, to confronting the textile waste crisis, to building scientifically strong devices — is not a tale of machines but of people.

The recyclers who needed clarity. The weavers who needed proof. The artisans who needed visibility. The sector that needed honesty. And the founders believed that they should use technology to restore dignity.

All pictures courtesy KOSHA