Manjari Gupta: ESG ventures scholarship recipient

What led you to take the Cambridge Judge Business School’s MSt in Entrepreneurship?

My journey into environmental entrepreneurship began with a deeply personal encounter, watching waste pickers in Bangalore sift through trash with their bare hands and witnessing plastic waste choking the city’s lakes. These scenes of environmental injustice stayed with me. Whilst working at the Ashoka Trust’s Centre for Social and Environmental Innovation, I began to understand the systemic failures behind plastic waste management in India. It became clear to me that entrepreneurship could serve as the chemotherapy for climate change, a direct, solution-driven approach to a crisis that greenwashing and ESG frameworks have largely failed to address.

The Cambridge MSt in Entrepreneurship offers the ideal platform to sharpen my thinking, strengthen my venture, Scanzer and scale systems-level change. It provides the academic rigor, network and global credibility needed to accelerate impact.

How do you feel about being awarded your scholarship?

This scholarship is a lifeline. As I bootstrap my venture and draw no personal salary, financial strain has been significant. Receiving this support lifts a major burden and allows me to fully focus on building my business and driving impact. More than just financial relief, the scholarship is a powerful affirmation of my mission, to reshape how sustainability, technology and consumer behaviour intersect.

Where do you see your programme journey taking you in your future career?

My mission is to drive responsible consumerism in developing nations by transforming both consumer behaviour and corporate mindsets. With Scanzer, I’m creating a platform to educate and engage citizens around sustainability. I’m also writing a book to help catalyse system-level change. Over the next decade, I aim to reach 10 million learners globally and influence corporate strategies, public habits and environmental policies. The MSt in Entrepreneurship will equip me with the strategic insight, entrepreneurial frameworks and operational tools I need to lead this mission with purpose and precision.

What does Cambridge mean to you?

Cambridge represents transformation, of ideas, systems and self. It’s where entrepreneurship meets purpose. For me, it’s more than a university, it’s a convening ground that unites academia, innovators and sustainability-driven enterprises to collaborate on solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. I see Cambridge as the launchpad for deeper conversations with investors, corporates and policymakers, conversations that can turn bold ideas into scalable, real-world environmental impact, especially in regions where it’s needed most.