A Delhi couple with ₹16 lakh govt grant to make biodegradable pens is now inviting bigger peers

Saurabh and Shivani Mehta’s startup, NOTE (No offence to Earth), began research on biodegradable pens in 2019 and made a breakthrough this year.

Now, they have a ₹16 lakh government grant, under the Startup India programme, and a product ready for launch on World Environment Day (June 5). “We need to collaborate with bigger players. If ball pen makers with bigger manufacturing capacities and distribution collaborate with us, we can solve the problem faster,” Saurabh, an engineer from Bharatiya Vidyapeeth in New Delhi, said.

Shivani, the co-founder and product designer at NOTE, has another startup called Daakroom, aiming to revive the art of handwritten communication, which was featured on an episode of Shark Tank earlier this year.

A pen with (almost) no plastic

Conventional pen manufacturing involves a significant amount of plastic, which hurts the environment. While there are sustainable alternatives for the pen’s body, NOTE’s research focused on a more challenging aspect: the refill. They have replaced the plastic in the refill with a biodegradable barrier made from vegetable oil, ensuring the refill’s longevity for up to 18 months.

The latest breakthrough, made in 2024 after four years of research, addressed the problem of longevity by using vegetable oil as a barrier inside the refill, stopping the ink from leaking.

Is it better to use wood instead of plastic when making pens? “Plastic came as a replacement for wood. Replacing plastic with wood will only create another problem. It’s not a solution,” Mehta explained.

“Due to limited capacity, we aim to sell 1-2 million pens this year,” said Saurabh, adding that their bootstrapped venture would need more money to scale up capacity.

The pen industry in India

Globally, the market size for pens is estimated at $20 billion. Crisil estimated the Indian pen market at ₹10,000 crore, 80% of which is organised, as of October 2023.

Raw materials make for 60-65% of the cost, most of which goes into polypropylene, and the operating profit for the financial year ending March 2024 was estimated at 13%.

NOTE’s biodegradable pens are priced between ₹25 and ₹500, but the founders believe the cheapest pen can be made available at ₹5-10 once the volumes pick up in the future.

While the price of pens have largely remained largely the same for over a couple of decades, their sales have grown. Up until 2018, 60% of all pens sold in India were priced under ₹10.

“However, post 2018 with the launch of Pentonic (made by Linc Pens), the industry witnessed a change in mix with the contribution of pens cheaper than ₹10 reducing to 40%, pens in the price range of ₹10-50 forming 35-40% of the market (vs 20-25% earlier), while the remaining share coming from premium and luxury pens which are priced over ₹100,” Systematix, a Mumbai-based broking firm, said in a September 2023 report.

With inputs from Local18