Solinas Integrity Pvt Ltd, a Chennai-based climatetech startup, Tuesday said it had raised funds from climate and sustainability-focused Neev II Fund, which is managed by SBICAP Ventures. The company did not disclose the amount raised in the funding round that included Nithin Kamath’s Rainmatter Capital.
Founded in 2018 by Divanshu Kumar and Moinak Banerjee, Solinas develops robotic and Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions for the water and sanitation industry, with a focus on detecting defects and leakages in water and sewer pipelines, assessing their condition and eliminating manual scavenging through mechanized cleaning of manholes and septic tanks.
The startup has three main products under its current portfolio with multiple patents--Endobot, Swasth AI and HomoSEP.
In 2022, the company raised $550,000 in a seed-funding round from 8X Ventures, Lister Ventures, Sophonos Investment, Chetan Mehra of Kotta Enterprises of the Weizmann Group.
“Our investment in Solinas is aligned with our objective of enabling technology-led revolution in nascent sectors such as water and sanitation which have received limited funding. Through our investment, we aim to pave the way for a sustainable water and sanitation infrastructure,” said Akshay Panth, chief investment officer, Neev Funds.
Neev Fund II is a small and medium enterprises (SME) fund managed by SBICAP Ventures Ltd, a subsidiary of the public sector bank State Bank of India.
In 2022, the fund received commitments of around Rs 1,500 crore as it looked to raise close to Rs 2,000 crore.
The sponsors of Neev Fund II, or SVL-SME fund, comprises of global and domestic investors including the European Investment Bank (EIB); Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO); Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), SRI Fund and the government-owned State Bank of India (SBI) Group.
In December 2021, the government-backed fund added Japan’s International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to its cohort. JICA concluded a Rs 214 crore (around $30.5 million) investment agreement with Neev II Fund.
