Bengaluru startup which creates water out of air raises funds in seed round

A fully solar-powered unit by Uravu Labs which harnesses atmospheric moisture to produce 5-7 litres of renewable water per day

Bengaluru-based Uravu Labs, a deep-tech startup which creates a sustainable source of water out of air, has raised an undisclosed amount of funds in a seed round led by Anicut Capital, Rocketship VC and Speciale Invest.

A release by the company said that their technology harnesses atmospheric moisture and uses renewable energy to produce drinking water. The startup said that its solution’s application is in 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, with the funding, is 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.

While the water-from-air concept is not new, Uravu Labs claims to have created a technology that uses renewable energy. Conventionally, a significant amount of electricity is necessary for harnessing water from air, and Uravu Labs says that this electricity is not always generated from clean and renewable resources.

Uravu Labs' technology uses a framework based on desiccant materials. A desiccant is a substance that removes water from something.

The company has developed drinking water machines from this technology and it plans numerous use cases for them.

Smaller capacity machines of 20-100 liters per day can see applications in urban and rural community spaces, office complexes, and apartment buildings, the company said.

Larger capacity machines above 10,000 liters per day can be used by the beverage sector, it added.

The company said that it has signed clients in the beverage sector 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.

With the funds, the company also plans to work with government and CSR partners to reach drought-stricken remote areas in India and Africa by next year.

Speaking on the announcement, 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,” Garg said.

“The concept of 100 percent renewable water is groundbreaking and we were excited by the progress that the team has made," said Sailesh Ramakrishnan, Partner, Rocketship.vc.

Earlier in 2021, the climate-tech startup raised an undisclosed amount during a pre-seed funding round led by Speciale Invest. Other investors included angel investors such as Peter Yolles (Echo River Capital), Soren Schroder, Shigeru Sumimoto (Conselux Corporation), and Tomoki Kaneko (Kaneko Cord).