Mumbai-based Green India Building Systems and Services Pvt Ltd (GIBSS), a geothermal cooling solutions firm, has raised an undisclosed amount in a Series A round of funding from Zurich-headquartered social investor responsAbility, the company said.
Existing investor Infuse Ventures, an early-stage investment firm associated with IIM Ahmedabad’s tech incubator CIIE (Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship), also participated in the round.
Founded by Mandar Kaprekar and Arun Shenoy, GIBSS provides energy efficient and environmentally responsible technologies. The company claims that it has generated annual savings of over eight million electrical units and reduced over 150 million litres of water consumption to date.
“With 100 per cent water savings and up to 60 per cent energy savings compared to traditional air-conditioning and industrial process cooling systems, geothermal technology remains the most attractive prospect for life cycle operating savings across building verticals that require comfort/process cooling or heating, especially in data centres, hospitals, office buildings, pharma and manufacturing,” said Mandar Kaprekar, co-founder of GIBSS.
Shenoy, co-founder and an alumnus of Oklahoma State University which houses IGSHPA, the apex global research body for geothermal air conditioning, said the firm's technology has a payback period of less than two years and an economic life of over 30 years.
In April, the company raised an undisclosed amount from Infuse Ventures and had earlier raised an angel round from SRI Capital and Hyderabad Angels.
"Globally, geothermal technology has been a huge success with millions of installations world-wide. The offering to the corporate sector is compelling, and the proof lies in the backing by marquee names in corporate India which are using this already," said Rik Vyverman, global head ventures equity at responsAbility.
responsAbility, an independent asset manager, specialises in development-related sectors of emerging economies such as finance, agriculture, health, education and energy. Founded in 2003, it currently has assets under management of $2.7 billion and has invested in more than 530 companies in around 90 countries.
This is the eighth investment by the firm in India, according to VCCEdge, the data research platform of VCCircle. The other portfolio companies include Janalakshmi Financial Services, Utkarsh Micro Finance and Sara Plast.
"GIBSS has been seeing great interest from the industrial and commercial sector for its geothermal cooling solutions and the current round will help it scale faster. Geothermal cooling could play a big role in the Smart Cities project and we believe the upcoming geothermal mission will be a boost to this energy efficient and environment-friendly replacement for traditional air-conditioning," said Kunal Upadhyay, CEO, Infuse Ventures.
The fund's investment portfolio includes companies like REConnect Energy, Surya Power Magic, Tessol and Revive Electronic Waste.
Intellecap acted as the sole advisor to GIBSS for the deal.