Miki Agrawal is a social entrepreneur who uses creativity and innovation to challenge the status quo and change culture.

Agrawal’s latest venture is her fourth start-up and she looks to fight climate change through disrupting the baby diaper space. Earlier start-ups include Wild (dairy and gluten-free), Thinx (period-proof panties) and Tushy (bidets).

In a candid conversation with Lalita Salgaokar, a creative director, based in New York City, Agrawal opens up about her journey, her latest product launch, and what it means to lead with purpose.

“It’s a depressing fact that only 2% of venture capital goes to women,” said Agrawal, unapologetically. The serial entrepreneur known for Thinx, Tushy, and Wild, has now turned her focus to tackling the environmental crisis through her fourth venture, Hiro Technologies.

After four years of intense R&D, Hiro Technologies is finally ready for launch.

“We have used Kickstarter - the crowdfunding platform to unveil our patented plastic-eating fungi technology,” she said. “Our vision is rather simple yet personally profound. We want to be the global supplier of plastic-eating fungi. We want to transform how we approach plastic disposal and create a future where nature itself can undo humanity’s environmental footprint.”

Agrawal also went on to explain how this isn’t a sci-fi pipe dream.

She added, “Fifteen years ago, scientists first discovered plastic-eating fungi in the Amazon and have continued to study them ever since. Hiro is the first to bring this research out of the lab and to consumers in a friendly, shelf-stable way.”

The first product Hiro is launching is an innovative one - baby diapers. “When my son Hiro was two years old, I was sitting in my bedroom one morning thinking breast milk is liquid gold and therefore baby poop must be fertiliser gold,” she shared. “And right now, when we change baby diapers, we wrap up this potent fertiliser in layers of plastic instead of harnessing the potential billions of pounds of this baby poop for good.”

Her frustration with the so-called ‘eco’ options led her to dig deeper. She explained, “I tried everything when Hiro was a baby to go for cloth diapers and it just didn’t work. It was terrible to wash all those diapers. Everything smelled of vinegar. So then we tried bamboo eco diapers and they sucked from a performance standpoint.”

Agrawal also called out greenwashing in the industry. “The way bamboo diapers are manufactured is terrible for the planet they’re completely greenwashed. This led to a pivotal realisation: There had got to be a way to create the most high-performing eco diaper that also turned back into soil," she remarked.

On the funding front for female founders, Agrawal speaks with a mix of realism and resilience. She said, “I think that you have to build a level of credibility and I feel very grateful for the investors that have come on board for Hiro Technologies who have either invested in my previous companies or really believe in what we’re creating.”

But she doesn’t shy away from addressing the systemic bias.

“It feels like a final gasp from the patriarchy. It feels like at times the world is moving backwards but I do feel like this soft power concept is more true today than ever before. People are ready for a paradigm shift," she added.

This chat was part of Manifest's Madison Avenue column. To read the full conversation, click here to buy our April issue.