Collects and checks emissions data from a listed company's key suppliers
TL;DR Sourcecount gathers electricity bills and fuel invoices from a large company's main suppliers, turns them into Scope 1 and 2 figures, and flags numbers that do not add up. The listed buyer pays, the small supplier gets the work done for free, and the result is data an assurance firm can trace back to paper.
India's top 1,000 listed companies must report their own Scope 1 and 2 emissions, and the top 500 need those figures assured from 2025-26[1]. Supplier emissions are another matter. The top 250 were meant to report on their main suppliers on a comply-or-explain basis, but SEBI made this voluntary in March 2025[1]. Global customers keep asking anyway - one global disclosure platform alone sent requests to more than 45,000 suppliers in 2025[2].
The suppliers are often small firms with no sustainability staff. They get a long questionnaire from each buyer and fill in their best guesses, and the buyer has no way to check any of it.
Sourcecount works for the buyer. It takes the list of suppliers that each make up 2% or more of purchases, which is how SEBI now defines a significant value-chain partner[1]. A small team then contacts each supplier, collects 12 months of power bills, diesel and gas invoices and production volumes, and calculates Scope 1 and 2 using published factors. Every number links to the document behind it. Checks flag the outliers - emissions per tonne far above peers, missing months, or a captive generator that never shows up in the fuel bills. The buyer gets a supplier table ready for its BRSR or global disclosure response, and the supplier gets a one-page footprint it can reuse with other customers.
The original idea put blockchain and IoT sensors at every supplier, and I've dropped both. Meters at hundreds of small plants cost far more than the data is worth to a buyer, and bills already hold the figures an assurer wants to see.
The payer is the sustainability or procurement head at a large listed company or a multinational's Indian arm, usually under pressure from global customers or investors. Price it per supplier per year. I found no public price for comparable services. Suppliers pay nothing, and that's the whole point, because free help is what gets them to share bills.
BRSR Core assurance widens to the top 1,000 companies from 2025-26 onward[1], so assurers are getting stricter about evidence. India's carbon credit trading scheme puts targets on about 460 plants in heavy industry[1], whose own buyers will ask for product footprints. Supplier requests from global disclosure platforms are growing[2].
No public figure exists for Indian spending on supplier emissions data. The firmest numbers are the buyers - 250 listed companies in scope for voluntary value-chain reporting, and 1,000 filing BRSR[1]. That platform's 45,000 supplier requests in 2025 is a global figure that includes Indian suppliers[2]. Treat the voluntary status as a real limit on demand.
Indian carbon accounting platforms offer software with a supplier data exchange and BRSR tools[3]. ESG consultancies sell carbon footprint and ESG reporting services[4]. Software hands suppliers a form, and consultants work for one company at a time. The gap is someone who does the legwork with hundreds of small suppliers and keeps one checked footprint per supplier that many buyers can use.
| Difficulty | Moderate (33/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹40–75 L |
| Time to launch | 4–6 months |
The calculations are standard. The hard part is getting busy small suppliers to send a year of bills, and doing it at a cost per supplier that a buyer will pay. Selling is tricky too, because the legal pull is now voluntary, so you need buyers whose own customers are asking.
No licence is needed to prepare emissions data. Your buyers report under SEBI rules, and you must stay a data provider.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't let AI estimate a number that has no bill behind it. The whole value is that every figure traces to paper.
Want to work out the AI layer for Sourcecount? Talk to Yash →
Here's what can go south -
I like this as a practical services business for a founder from audit, energy or sustainability consulting. Do not pitch it as compliance software with hard legal demand, because the demand really comes from export customers and assurers. First prove that 60% of one buyer's key suppliers will hand over a year of bills within three weeks.
Around ₹40–75 L, mostly an analyst team that collects bills from suppliers, plus a simple tool to calculate and check the figures.
No. You only need the usual company registration, GST and DPDP compliance. Assurance is a separate regulated role, so don't offer it.
It can be if buyers' global customers keep asking, since SEBI's value-chain rule is now voluntary. Prove one buyer pays per supplier first.
The free Sourcecount validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the rules checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for buyers and suppliers, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Sourcecount or something close to it? The make-or-break work is getting small suppliers to share bills at a cost a buyer will pay, and I'm happy to help you work out the numbers. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.