Uravu Labs Pvt Ltd, a Bengaluru-based deep-tech startup focused on water renewables technology, has raised an undisclosed sum in a seed funding round led by Speciale Invest, one of the few early-stage deep-tech-focused venture capital firms in India.
The round also participation from angel investors like Peter Yolles of US-based EchoRiver Capital, Soren Schroder, Shigeru Sumimoto of Conselux Corporation, Japan, and Tomoki Kaneko of Kaneko Cord, Japan, the company said in a statement.
The fresh capital will be used to bolster the technology, strengthen the patent portfolio, scale operations, and accelerate opportunities for deploying field pilots, the statement added.
Founded in 2019 by Pardeep Garg, Swapnil Shrivastav, Venkatesh R and Govinda Balaji, Uravu Labs said it is building a new type of atmospheric water generator that is 100% renewable.
Uravu claims to create water from air using only renewable energy. It said the technology makes use of desiccants and is scalable and adaptable into various forms of renewable energy sources like solar, waste-heat, or biomass to produce 100% renewable water.
“Today, many sectors are in the midst of a renewable revolution. For example, solar PV and wind help us go renewable in the electricity sector but we do not see any such option in the water sector. Uravu is bridging this gap by bringing a novel 100% renewable water technology option to the market.” Dr Pardeep Garg, co-Founder of Uravu Labs, said.
Co-Founder Swapnil Shrivastav said, Looking at beverage segment, we see transformation towards sustainable packaging. However, water, which is the main ingredient in beverage products, remains the same old non-renewable groundwater. Imagine the next time you buy a beverage product, the water could be 100% renewable. Many customers have a desire for creating social and environmental impact with water as a focus area, and Uravu’s 100% renewable water solution can bring strategic and measurable outcomes to such initiatives.
Speciale Invest, co-founded in 2017 by Vishesh Rajaram and Arjun Rao, is a venture firm that backs seed state ventures and entrepreneurs that use disruptive technologies to find innovative solutions that make an impact.
It focused on investments in Enterprise Software Products which is emerging from deep tech in the cloud, voice and vision, machine learning/artificial intelligence, image analytics, augmented reality/virtual reality; and Industrial Hardware Products which are emerging from deep tech in propulsion tech, robotics, rocket engines, lithium tech, micro-electronics, optical communication tech.
In September, VCCircle reported that Special Invest aims to deploy more follow-on dollars from its second fund which is set for a final close soon with significant oversubscription.
Speciale Invest generally makes four to five new bets in a year.
Its investments from the first fund include those in aerial mobility startup ePlane, space-tech startup Agnikul, robotics startup CynLr, and Frontdesk AI, a startup which offers automated customer service software.
Uravu is leveraging its strength in thermal and material sciences to build desiccant-based water harvesting solutions that are 100% renewable & carbon neutral. They are on a strong path to achieve price parity in the coming years as a result of their unique tech stack. This is our 1st of many to come decarbonization & climate tech investments,” Rajaram said.
