Uravu Labs, a Bangalore based startup focused on building a renewable water infrastructure, has recently announced its seed round of funding. The lead investor in the round was Anicut Capital and it was co-led by Rocketship.vc and Speciale Invest. The company also received participation from investors like Vesta (France), Venture Catalysts (India), Verso Holdings (Luxembourg), Spectrum Impact (India), Echo River Capital (US) and other angel investors from India, the US and the Middle East.
The company plans to utilise the capital to scale its 100% renewable water technology. Their unique technology harnesses inexhaustible atmospheric moisture and uses only renewable energy to produce high-quality drinking water. The industrial-scale and affordable solution has the ability to transform various markets - primarily the beverage industry, real estate and hospitality sectors, and will be commercialised by 2023.
Founded in 2019 by Pardeep Garg, Swapnil Shrivastav, Venkatesh R, and Govinda Balaji, Uravu Labs is dedicated towards bringing the next water revolution. Uravu Labs is thus eyeing to expand its team in R&D, engineering, marketing and business development roles to support its growth and commercialisation in the next two years through the new funds.
The company has signed beverage giants such as AB InBev and Radico Khaitan as customers and is reaching out to many more beverage and commercial customers in the Indian, Southeast Asian, Middle East, and Japanese markets. The fresh funding will build the path for further expansion in these geographies. The company also plans to work with strategic government and CSR partners to reach drought-stricken remote areas in India and Africa by next year.
Speaking on the announcement, Dr. Pardeep Garg, CEO and Co-founder, Uravu Labs said, “The seed investment will enable Uravu to accelerate its ongoing work of minimising the stress on groundwater. It will further enable us to mitigate resource depletion by converting abundantly available air into water using only renewable energy. With field pilots already out, the company is aiming to rapidly test and scale the solution with key customers.” presenting the startup’s determination to help nature and the communities getting affected daily.
On the seed funding, lead investor Ashvin Chadha, Managing Partner, Anicut Capital said, “The Uravu Labs team has embarked on a unique and impactful journey to revolutionise renewable water technology. They bring a rich experience of delivering on clean technology and mobilising the commercialization of the same for industry. With their remarkable innovation and technology stakeholders can adapt, maintain, and thrive on an enriching agenda of renewable water infrastructure. Our support to Uravu Labs comes in the wake of our renewed focus to build on the sustainability momentum for the wider industry and to continuously strengthen and encourage startups aiming to change the status quo.” while stating his trust in the company and the product.
“The concept of 100% renewable water is groundbreaking and we were excited by the progress that the team has made. We believe that Uravu and renewable water will be an important part of our efforts to tackle climate change," added Sailesh Ramakrishnan, Partner, Rocketship.vc validating the good news.
“We believe that climate-tech will play a pivotal role course-correcting environmental degradation. We know that the need for this tech is NOW!, not sometime in the future. We are very pleased to continue to invest in Uravu Labs and partner through their pioneering journey to building sustainable water infrastructure for the world from India.” said Vishesh Rajaraman, Managing Partner, Speciale Invest.
Swapnil Shrivastav, Co-founder, Uravu Labs added, “100% renewable water is the missing puzzle in the transformation towards a more sustainable world and Uravu is aiming to truly deliver real world environmental and social impact with its scalable solution in the mid-to-long term”.
Speaking further on the scalability and commercial plans, Balaji, Co-founder of Uravu Labs added "We have built a strong team on the engineering side and this team is capable of achieving the commercial scale in the fastest possible manner".
Their work was also appreciated by other investors like Jean-Baptiste Lacoste, who highlighted the team’s effort by saying, "At Vesta, we believe that an investment done in the right ideas can make an impact on the whole society and Uravu's 100% renewable water solution serves this purpose. It isn't every day that you get to invest in such innovative and purposeful ideas."
Julien Machot, Managing Partner at Verso Fund, further added, "The team at Uravu is providing the technical solutions we currently need to harvest the most essential asset on earth: water. At VERSO, we value replacing unsustainable water, the backbone of many industries and individuals, with renewable forms that will affect billions of lives. Moreover, Uravu's contribution to sustainability opens up horizons for all other sectors."
Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Co-Founder & President, Venture Catalysts Group said, “Today it has become the prerogative of every company, big or small, to adopt models of sustainability and innovation that are in line with the demands of climate crisis, to ensure a better future for everyone. Venture Catalysts are proud to invest in a company like Uravu Labs, that focuses on making renewable water available to people, something which was unfathomable and apparently impossible. We look forward to supporting this novel cause to promote a safer, healthier, and accessible future with renewable water for everyone.”
This new-age climate-tech startup has previously raised an undisclosed amount during a pre-seed funding round led by Speciale Invest in 2021. Other investors included angel investors like Peter Yolles (Echo River Capital), Soren Schroder, Shigeru Sumimoto (Conselux Corporation), and Tomoki Kaneko (Kaneko Cord). Since then, there has been commendable growth in their team size and customer traction, catalysing the change we all want to witness in the water sector.
About Uravu Labs:
Uravu Labs is a Bangalore-based startup on a mission to build sustainable water solutions for the climate adaptation era. It’s a cross-functional team of scientists, engineers, and designers pushing boundaries of innovation and creativity to conceive a new kind of 100% renewable water infrastructure which utilises inexhaustible atmospheric moisture and only renewable energy to produce high quality drinking water. The company has also been a recipient of many awards - it was a global finalist in the Water Abundance XPRIZE, winner in UNIDO’s FLCTD Challenge, and a semi-finalist in the Ashirvad Water Challenge. Using the potential of technology and design, the company aims to deliver measurable environmental and social impact by transforming how the society sources and distributes high-quality drinking water that is accessible to all.
About Anicut Capital:
Anicut Capital is founded by financial services veterans Ashvin Chadha and IAS Balamurugan. Anicut Capital currently manages two debt funds with an AUM of INR 1400cr and equity based Angel Fund. Recently, Anicut Capital has announced the first close of INR 500cr Anicut Opportunities Fund I. The first close corpus stands at INR 110cr. The investment firm is aiming to deploy the raised funding across 10-15 growth stage companies across Anicut and non-Anicut portfolios over a span of two years. Anicut Angel fund has deployed INR ~200cr in early and growth stage start-ups with cumulative AUM of INR 1600 cr. A few of Anicut's portfolio companies include brands like Neemans, Bira, Sugar cosmetics, Earth rhythm, Wingreens, Blue Tokai, Sharechat, Mcaffeine, Milkymist, XYXX, Curatio Healthcare, Agnikul and Grip Finance etc.