Solar Start-up Renkube Bags INR 2.4 Cr in Seed Funding Round
Renewable energy-focused deep tech startup - Renkube - has announced that it has secured INR 2.4 croresin a seed round led by CIIE.CO. JITO Angel Network and K4 Forum Mumbai Network also participated in this round. Halliburton Labs, a wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton Company is participating via Renkube’s selection to its clean energy accelerator. Renkube is the world's first company to offer a motion-free tracking solution embedded in the glass design for solar panels.
Founded by Balaji Lakshmikanth Bangolae, Dr Lakshmi Santhanam, Deepika Gopal and Dr Janardhana Vittal Rao in 2017 to build a sustainable future by producing cutting-edge products in the renewable energy field, the company plans to use the fresh funds to build industrial-scale manufacturing of this solar panel, secure necessary certifications and demonstrate the technology with top industrial customers in India, the US and Australia. The company will start with the Solar Photovoltaic market and, in future, enable this technology for different use cases such as an Integrated Solar Roof, Agri PV, Solar Water Heater and Solar Balcony.
Commenting on the announcement, Balaji Lakshmikanth, CEO and Co-founder, Renkube - "At Renkube, we want to enable the world to unlock the enormous potential of solar energy and accelerate the transition to a net zero carbon economy by 2070. Solar is booming and let’s make it even better.”
Large solar farms today have only mechanical trackers as their only option to increase energy yield which results in 15% more capital cost, an experienced workforce to maintain the trackers, and also the motors and gears have limited warranty. Renkube intends to replace this cumbersome technology with its AI based smart glass design that once installed lasts for the lifetime of the panel with absolutely zero maintenance overheads. Just like how a sunflower that tracks the sun to maximize the yield, our innovative light harvesting glass tracks the sun and improves the energy yield of the solar panels by 20% more. As long as the Renkube panel is installed as per the recommended latitude tilt, the design works across all geographies fromSingapore to London.
“CIIE.CO has actively been investing in the Cleantech space since its inception and we believe this space requires crucial catalytic capital to foster innovation and better products for faster, efficient adoption. Renkube has a very strong technical background with founders having a decade of experience each in the engineering, research and software domains. Their patent pending light redirecting glass design based on their proprietary topology optimization algorithm is an extremely unique product and creates a strong defensibility and first mover advantage in the clean tech space”, said Vipul Patel, Partner, Seed Investing, CIIE.CO.
The company is also supported by prestigious government grants from IKP Knowledge Park, Hyderabad, as BIG partner (BIRAC) and Meity Tide 2.0 support from SINE, IIT Bombay. The company is also supported by AgHub Foundation, a Centre for Innovation and Agri-entrepreneurship at Prof Jaya Shankar Telangana State Agriculture University, (PJTSAU), Hyderabad. Renkube is working with AgHub under first of its kind Agritech Innovation Pilot, Cohort 2.0 and is currently conducting its innovation pilot at PJTSAU experimental farm on a real time basis for technology validation and developing farmer traction at Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
They were also initially supported for their prototype development by MSME Centre of Excellence (DESE), IISc Bangalore, by StartupNexus from US Embassy, and by Science and Technology Park, Pune under NIDHI PRAYAS programme of DST, Govt of India.
