Energy solutions startup Urjas raises $100K from Solidarity Venture Capital, others

Mumbai-based energy solutions startup Urjas Energy Solutions Pvt Ltd has raised $100,000 (about Rs 62 lakh) in funding from Solidarity Venture Capital and a few unnamed angel investors, a top executive of the company told Techcircle.in.

The firm will use the funds to expand its reach across Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka, as well as to launch new products.

As part of the deal, Aniruddha Malpani, founder, Solidarity Venture Capital, will join the board of the company.

"While impact investing might be a fancy term, in principle it makes a lot of sense. I see investing in Urjas as my way of participating in the good of the world we live in, and at the same time have a possibility of making an investment return," said Malpani.

The company was founded in January 2012 by IIT-Bombay alumni Pradeepkumar Podal, Devendra Pareek and Ashwinikumar Shejwalkar. It manufactures 'gasifier' equipment that converts bio waste into energy. According to the company, its gasifiers can work with multiple types of bio waste and require low maintenance.

The firm sells as well as leases its products, which include thermal gasifiers, electric gasifiers and its latest product, a plastic waste-to-oil converter.

"With Urjas, we are trying to reduce our client's fuel expenses, not their comfort in using fossil fuels. Gasification has been around for over a century. What we have done is made it usable in the Indian industrial eco-system," said Podal.

"Burning fossil fuel to create energy is easy, but unsustainable. Instead of depleting precious fossil fuel, Urjas's technology allows clients to use farm waste and other kinds of waste to create energy," added Ajeet Khurana, former CEO of SINE, IIT Bombay, and mentor to Urjas.

The company is currently being incubated at SINE.

Several waste management firms in India have raised funding in the past, but a bulk of the money has gone into waste water management space. Zuci Energy Pvt Ltd is another solid waste management firms that had raised an undisclosed amount in funding from a few alumni of Harvard Business School including serial entrepreneur Krishna Lakamsani, Abhinav Sinha and Ramana Nanda.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)