Kula Innovate | An Innovation Pathway to support R&D in handmade.

Unlocking ₹₹₹ for Craft-led Enterprises

Bairaj-Nilak

Embrace a space designed for true collaboration. From floor seating circles to open-air gatherings, expect formats that break down barriers, invite fresh perspectives, and celebrate shared ideas. Here, everyone has a voice - no hierarchies, just people connecting and creating together.

HDC Bhujodi
Chetan Vankar

HDC Bhujodi is promoting natural indigo over synthetic, cheaper German indigo for textile dyeing, reducing environmental impact and ensuring safer, non-toxic fabrics. Its initiative expands an indigo workshop in Kutch, training artisans to adopt this eco-friendly dyeing process. Through hands-on workshops, it plans to empower a new generation of weavers to adapt to natural homegrown Indigo.

Amra Arora

Amra Craft, founded by 20-year-old Amra Haidarali Arora in Bhuj, specialises in handcrafted Bandhani products, blending traditional techniques with Tangaliya weaving, Kutch weaving, and Ajrakh printing.. Empowering women artisans, Amra Craft ensures fair wages for their intricate tying work. By uniting design innovation with craftsmanship Amra not only preserves Kutch’s generational craft legacy but also champions sustainable craftsmanship for a greener future.

Subir Biswas

In Shantipur, West Bengal, once renowned for its exquisite jamdani weaving, the craft faces decline due to a shift from natural to artificial fibres like rayon. Subir Biswas, a third-generation weaver, leads a creative enterprise with 15 women artisans, working exclusively with organic fibres to revive Shantipur's jamdani legacy. By blending tradition, sustainability, and innovation, Subir creates contemporary products that highlight the potential of natural materials.

Nisha Verma

A third-generation weaver and creative entrepreneur in Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh, Nisha leads one of two women-led creative enterprises in the region. Working with 5 women artisans, Nisha now seeks support to expand and scale her production capacity bringing in more women weavers. Simultaneously, she also aims to push her creative boundaries with the help of right design support.

Climate Innovation Awards by SELCO Foundation

Khankho-Lom Producers Cooperative Society

Visit Website

Khankho-Lom works with farmers and artisans in Manipur by innovating eco-friendly products, including banana fiber crafts, vegan leather, and biodegradable packaging, advancing sustainable agriculture and nature conservation

The Innovation

Khankho-Lom leverages banana fiber to produce eco-friendly crafts and vegan leather, reducing plastic use and environmental harm. Their innovation sustains livelihoods for farmers and artisans while championing biodegradable solutions. By blending creativity with sustainability, they create products that transform markets and inspire conservation-focused rural development.

AVACreations Social Impact Foundation

Visit Website

AVACreations is creating alternate livelihood opportunities for forest-dependent communities in Assam by promoting handloom weaving and sericulture, reducing reliance on deforestation while improving income and preserving cultural heritage.

The Innovation

AVACreations’ innovative approach addresses the issue of declining livelihoods for forest-dependent communities in Assam by leveraging handloom weaving and sericulture practices as a livelihoods solution. Their approach preserves biodiversity and traditional crafts while strengthening economic resilience. The foundation ensures environmental conservation via economic inclusion, and creates an equitable growth model for forest-dependent communities.

Xuta

Visit Website

Xuta empowers 150+ women weavers by providing high-quality yarn loans, health benefits, and capacity-building programs. Committed to ESG principles, XUTA promotes fair wages, preserves indigenous techniques, fosters gender inclusivity, and strengthens communities, positively impacting over 500 family members in just three years.

The Innovation

Xuta champions well rounded sustainable textile production from Majuli, the worldʼs largest river island, by empowering weavers asequal stakeholders. Combining wild silk, indigenous natural dyes, and zero-waste processes on bamboo looms, Xuta preserves cultural heritage while fostering eco-friendly production. Transparent earnings and youth engagement ensure enduring impact and economic transformation for the Northeast.

Dianthe

Dianthe Private Limited, a women-led startup from Manipur promotes local craftsmanship and sustainable farming by growing and selling vibrant fresh and dry flowers. It empowers women and farmers, creating employment and boosting regional economies.

The Innovation

Dianthe is redefining the floral market by promoting locally adapted varieties, bridging market gaps, and driving socio-economic inclusion. Through the development of eco-friendly, biodegradable products, Dianthe offers sustainable solutions that enhance product quality, extend shelf life, and reduce dependence on imported, chemically treated flowers.

Mauna Dhwani Foundation

Visit Website

Mauna Dhwani Foundation revives handloom weaving in Mayurbhanj, Odisha, through 13 community weaving centres and a natural dyeing program, empowering 600+ tribal women. It aims to create a sustainable craft village fostering economic growth.

The Innovation

Mauna Dhwani Foundation revitalises India's handloom sector by integrating natural dyes made from local, renewable resources into traditional weaving. This eco-friendly approach preserves heritage, promotes sustainable fashion, and creates livelihoods for rural tribal women through skill training, employment, and market linkages, empowering artisans while reducing carbon footprints and enhancing product value.

Lekope Majuli Women Farmer Producer Company Ltd.

Visit Website

Lekope is a women-led Farmer Producer Company with 1,200+ shareholders, crafting handloom textiles, bamboo products, and processed foods, and building sustainable livelihoods across Northeast India.

The Innovation

By empowering women farmers and artisans, Lekope preserves traditional crafts and fosters low-tech innovation. Through skill-building, sustainable practices, and eco-friendly production, they create culturally rich, market-ready products. The enterprise nurtures entrepreneurship, strengthens rural economies, and addresses barriers like limited access to resources, ensuring a thriving ecosystem for handmade crafts.

Studio Coppre

Visit Website

Studio Coppre, a women-owned social impact brand, champions a culture-based development model by integrating skilled artisans into the economic mainstream, preserving heritage crafts, and blending traditional techniques with contemporary designs for homewares.

The Innovation

Studio Coppre is adopting a maker-first approach to improve its supply chain with ergonomic workspaces, upgraded health and safety standards, and protective gear. Understanding the reluctance of new-gen artisans to continue their craft, the brand aims to foster pride in their legacy, empowering them to become ambassadors and ensure the craft’s future.

Kaarigar Clinic

Visit Website

Kaarigar Clinic, India’s first rural business clinic, empowers artisans to build self-sustaining businesses, nurturing 150 entrepreneurs and impacting 3 lakh artisans, with a vision to uplift 1 million artisans by 2028.

The Innovation

Kaarigar Clinic's Business Wellness Program empowers artisans to become entrepreneurs by giving them identity, value and recognition. The clinic offers artisans with Business, Design, Brand, and Market Therapy, fostering entrepreneurship in the communities. The clinic reduces rural unemployment, revitalises traditional crafts, and fosters self-reliant communities within a 100-km radius, building a stronger rural economy.

Ecokaari

Visit Website

EcoKaari is a social enterprise that upcycles plastic waste into sustainable products, providing craft-based employment for underprivileged women and youth, while promoting environmental conservation and awareness through community workshops and initiatives.

The Innovation

EcoKaari blends traditional craftsmanship with circularity, turning plastic waste into beautifully handwoven fabrics. By repurposing non-biodegradable materials, it reduces environmental harm while creating fair livelihood opportunities for marginalised artisans. Championing a green economy, EcoKaari reimagines waste as a resource, inspiring a shift towards ethical, circular manufacturing, and conscious consumerism.

Resham Sutra Private Limited

Visit Website

Resham Sutra is revolutionising the silk value chain by empowering 1,000+ rural women and smallholder farmers in sericulture through 12 innovative machines, enhancing energy efficiency by 90%, boosting productivity by 400%, and ensuring quality via digital transformation.

The Innovation

Resham Sutra innovates solar-powered silk yarn and fabric production machines, with over 20,000 units installed across 16 states. Focused on empowering marginalised women, it provides farming support, skill development, raw material access, service training, and market linkages, creating a sustainable, dignified livelihood while maximising social impact.

Artha Impact Awards

Golden Feathers

Visit Website

Golden Feathers is pioneering change in the textiles and paper industry with its innovation of 6th natural woollen fibre of the world, crafted from upcycled Butchery Chicken Waste. Their efforts are deeply rooted in creating opportunities for marginalised communities, especially tribal women.

The Innovation

Projecthrive

Visit Website

Sonica Sarna Studio is an ethical design and production company that champions sustainability by uniting artisan communities, organic fabrics, and in-house fair trade practices with global supply chains, making fashion a force for good.

The Innovation

Projecthrive redefines success in fashion by tracking social and environmental impact across supply chains, focusing on water conservation, carbon sequestration, and artisan employment. The solution aims to combat greenwashing, simplify sourcing, and build consumer loyalty, enabling brands to leverage impact data as a key driver while advancing transparency, sustainability, and fair trade practices.

Kaarigar Mandi

Visit Website

Kaarigar Mandi is a game-changing B2B platform which bridges the gap between footwear artisans and footwear brands by standardising the manufacturing practices of artisans and providing them with access to market, finance and capacity building.

The Innovation

Kaarigar Mandi transforms the footwear industry by streamlining supply chains and addressing economic exclusion and gender disparities. It unites small-scale manufacturers into a reliable network, ensuring quality and timely delivery for global brands while empowering artisans with market access, skills, negotiation power, and financial services for sustainable growth.

Thank you to the
Kula Innovate Sponsors

Check out the Kula Innovate Champions

Bairaj-Nilak

Khankho-Lom Producers Cooperative Society

The Innovation

Golden Feathers

The Innovation