Investors fund start-up Thinkphi to harvest rain water, solar energy
Thinkphi a clean-tech company which creates sustainably engineered products that intelligently conserve water, energy and waste, raised an angel round of funding from serial entrepreneur Nimmagadda Prasad an early backer of successful companies such as; Matrix Laboratories, Maa TV, and Care Hospitals. Most recently he invested in Sachin Tendulkar’s ISL team Kerala Blasters.
The angel round of funding will be deployed primarily towards expanding operations, R&D team and starting of sales and distribution activities. With a mission to building a sustainable business the company plans to stay asset light and ensure focused effort and detail is spent on product design, material selection and manufacturing process.
With the focus on innovation and R&D, Thinkphi hopes to launch future products around energy saving devices and consumer waste management. The company uses a unique interactive process of product development and enhancement which is closely tied to its proprietary sustainability wheel, staying closely to its goal to become Earth’s most sustainable company. The company’s first product, is almost like a smart tree called “Ulta Chaata”, an inverted canopy looking structure provides potable water by capturing rain water during the monsoon and solar energy during the rest of the year. Each unit has the capability to harvest and filter up to 100,000 liters during the rainy season. With a maximum solar capacity of 1.5KW the product also includes an intelligent lighting system which provides various levels of programmable lighting options and a mobile charge unit, thereby making it a completely self-sustaining installation for the outdoors. Powered by a central operating system called the “phi-box” the controls help the lighting run for 4 to 5 days on a single solar charge and can provide potable quality drinking water through its inbuilt filter. The operating system also monitors, captures data, and allows users to communicate with a cluster of units over the cloud. The company has also filed multiple global patents on design and utility which smartly converges water harvesting and renewable energy, ideal for smart cities, industries or large campuses.
Established in 2015 by, Samit Choksi and Priya Vakil Choksi, Thinkphi was founded with a mission to build aesthetically pleasing, yet simple products that create positive impact on the environment through the use of sustainable and renewable resources. Within a short span since inception, Thinkphi has steadily built a team of engineers with a background in mechanical, computer science and industrial design who believe that simple ideas, inspired by nature, have the power to change the world.
Commenting on the investment, the co-founders said, “Thinkphi is an innovative company creating disruptive solutions to environmental problems. We are grateful to have investors who believed in our vision - we are confident that the investment in R&D and good product design will deliver positive results while building company value. We spend a great deal of time in our talent acquisition processes to build the right team who believe in our mission and can bring new ideas and skill sets”
According to the United Nations, water use has grown at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century. It is estimated that the demand for water will surpass the supply as early as 2025. Thinkphi’s long term goal is to address a global market for environmental goods which is targeted to reach $1.9 trillion by 2020. The overall Environmental Technologies market in India including goods and services is almost $15 Billion. With the growth of urbanization and water scarcity in India, Thinkphi’s “Ulta Chaata” can become a much needed solution for smart cities and businesses in India and Globally.
