IIM-A's CIIE backed Infuse Ventures invests in geothermal cooling startup

The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A)'s Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) backed clean tech fund Infuse Ventures has invested an undisclosed amount in geothermal cooling startup Green India Building Systems and Services Pvt Ltd. (GIBSS).

Founded by the geothermal air conditioning specialists duo, Mandar Kaprekar and Arun Shenoy, GIBSS provides energy efficient and environmentally responsible technologies that help reduce operating costs in buildings by up to 70 per cent to facilitate net zero energy buildings in India. A pioneer in the geothermal cooling space in India with customers across industrial, institutional and commercial setting, GIBSS saw Intellecap as the investment advisor for the investment.

"Geothermal air-conditioning is a proven concept globally and largely used for heating in the western countries. However, geothermal is largely untapped in cooling dominated tropical countries such as India and it presents enormous potential with significant changes in design approach on the cooling side," says Mandar, who is one among the six International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) accredited professionals in South East Asia.

"Commercial and Industrial buildings use an air-cooled or water-cooled system to pump out heat from inside the building into the atmosphere. With our geothermal design, operating costs of an air conditioning system can reduce by up to 70%, making geothermal one of the best prospects for operating cost-saving in any building. With a payback potential under two years and economic life of over 30 years, life cycle savings of geothermal cooling can be extremely appealing to an end-user," Mandar added.

"Our proprietary design tool that has a comprehensive database of ground thermal and hydrogeological properties for most Indian cities, which enables us to quickly create customized geothermal offerings for our customers. We have developed multiple design strategies that can be adopted based on different combinations of design parameters at a given location. With the induction of a draft national geothermal policy by the MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Govt of India) a few weeks back, we see a huge potential for the technology in India in the months to come," said Shenoy, co-founder and an alumnus of Oklahoma state university which houses IGSHPA, the apex global research body for geothermal air conditioning

Offering an investor's perspective Kunal Upadhyay, CEO, Infuse Ventures, said, "GIBSS is a pioneer of geothermal cooling in India and is helping unleash its potential. Within a short span, the team has been able to build the necessary tools and expertise to make geothermal cooling a reality in India. "While solar and wind have received enormous attention in the past, geothermal's potential remains untapped. GIBSS is all set to change that and we look forward to being the catalyst of this change."

GIBSS had earlier raised an angel round from SRI capital and Hyderabad Angels. As a part of the investment, Kunal will join the board of the Company.