Renkube, a renewable energy-focused deep tech firm, has announced that it has raised $300,000 (INR 2.4 crores) in a seed round headed by CIIE.CO. JITO Angel Network and K4 Forum Mumbai Network also joined in the financing round. Halliburton Labs, a wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL), is taking part in the clean energy accelerator through Renkube’s selection. Renkube is the first firm in the world to provide a motion-free tracking technology built into the glass design of solar panels.
Balaji Lakshmikanth, CEO and Co-Founder of Renkube, commented on the announcement saying that “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 presently have only mechanical trackers as their only option to boost energy yield, which results in 15% greater capital cost, an expert personnel to maintain the trackers, and limited guarantee on the motors and gears. The company plans to replace this inconvenient technology with its AI-based smart glass design, which, once installed, will last for the lifespan of the panel with no maintenance costs. Our unique light-collecting glass, like a sunflower that monitors the sun to maximum yield, tracks the sun and increases the energy yield of solar panels by 20%. As long as the Renkube panel is installed in accordance with the specified latitude tilt, the design is applicable from Singapore to London.
Vipul Patel, Partner, Seed Investing, CIIE.CO said “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 strong defensibility and first mover advantage in the clean tech space”.
Renkube funding
The company has also received notable government funding from IKP Knowledge Park in Hyderabad as a BIG partner (BIRAC) and Meity Tide 2.0 support from SINE, IIT Bombay. A Centre for Innovation and Agri-entrepreneurship at Prof Jaya Shankar Telangana State Agriculture, AgHub Foundation, University (PJTSAU), Hyderabad, also supports the enterprise. Renkube is collaborating with AgHub on the first-of-its-kind Agritech Innovation Pilot, Cohort 2.0, and is also now running its innovation pilot at PJTSAU experimental farm in Hyderabad, Telangana, India, for technology validation and farmer traction.
They were also initially sponsored in the creation of their prototype by the MSME Centre of Excellence (DESE), IISc Bangalore, StartupNexus from the US Embassy, and Science and Technology Park, Pune, under NIDHI PRAYAS.
Source: startuplanes.com
