AngelList’s Latest Investment In Clairco Signals Rising VC Interest In Cleantech

Bengaluru-based cleantech startup Clarico has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from US-based curated closed marketplace for startups and investors, AngelList.

The fresh funds will be used to expand its footprint to key cities across the country and strengthen its core technology team.

Founded in 2018 by Aayush Jha, Clairco is an Internet of Things (IoT) startup which enables air quality monitoring and purification. It uses low drag air filters which can be retrofitted to any type of air conditioning and turn them into air purifiers. The company has developed this patent-pending air purification system in-house.

How Does Clairco Provide Clean Air-As-A-Service?

These air monitoring and purification services are currently being implemented in the premises of India’s biggest health/fitness and home rental brands. Clairco is also executing paid pilots for schools, office spaces, tech parks, and hotels.

Aayush Jha, founder, Clairco said, “The backing of AngelList adds immense value to Clairco that goes just beyond capital. We will also be banking on their rich experience and network to expand to new cities and work at strengthening our core-technology team.”

Here’s how Clairco works:

• It analyses air quality data of a particular premise on a real-time basis
• It then installs ultra-low resistance air filter in existing air conditioning units
• This is then converted into smart air purification system

For its monetisation plan, Clairco charges its customers a monthly subscription fee for businesses of all sizes and scale. Clairco was one of the five finalists of Brigade’s tech-focused Real Estate Accelerator Programme (REAP) last year.

Prakhar Agarwal, head of investments, AngelList India said, “The magnitude of the pollution problem in majority of the Indian cities and the total inaction in dealing with it has been bothersome. For the past couple of months, I was actively scouting for start-ups that are innovating in this space and have a scalable solution beyond just pollution monitoring and analytics.”

He believes that Clairco’s patent pending technology provides a full stack solution to tackle this issue.

Need Of The Hour: Cleantech Startups

The 2018 MASSIVE Earth Summit brought together thought leaders from diverse fields to share their views and insights on the ‘pollution-as-resource’ mindset. The pollution reduction industry,  $15 Tn opportunity, is creating solutions for the elevated air and water pollution levels.

India houses 14 out of 20 world’s most polluted cities. Further, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) report, over 10-50% of indoor environments in India, North America, Europe, Australia and Japan are estimated to be affected by indoor dampness.

According to a report by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), the ill-effects of indoor air pollution results in about 2 Mn premature deaths per year in India. Of this, 44% are due to pneumonia, 54% from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and 2% from lung cancer.

Notably, the indoor air quality monitoring market is estimated to reach $4.63 Bn by 2022. While there are startups like Clairco, DataGlen, Synapptra and more, they are being supported by funds such as Massive Fund and GoMassive. Accelerators and incubators such as YES SCALE and Indian Angel Network provide further push to this segment.