Air pollution is a big threat to humans as well as our precious environment. The rapid increase in the number of industries being established worldwide is putting the health of humans at stake as these industries generate a huge amount of air pollution which ultimately harms all of us. However, technological innovations are proving to be a great resource to tackle air pollution. Devic Earth- a green technology company offers user-friendly innovative products and solutions for clean air. Rajeev Ranjan, Editor, Digital Terminal held an insightful interaction recently with Dr. Srikanth Sola, Founder and CEO, Devic Earth. The discussion revolved around the journey of Devic Earth, their efforts in saving the environment and the plans to grow in the Indian market. Read below the excerpts:
Rejeev: Please tell about your journey so far. How did you intend to enter green tech industry and what were the challenges at the onset?
Dr. Srikanth: Devic Earth has been on a 13-year journey towards clean air. From 2008 to 2018, we developed and perfected our product to make it reliable, safe and robust in real world conditions. In 2018, Devic Earth was launched to make our vision of “clean air for all” a reality. The early challenges we faced were common to any start-up at inception, and were resolved with hard work, grit and lots of help from our well-wishers.
Rejeev: How do Pure Skies bring positive results in the environment of industrial areas? Please brief about the technology which has been used in this product.
Dr. Srikanth: Pure Skies brings positive results in industrial areas and cities by enhancing what happens in nature. Most air pollutants are microscopic; they are not seen by the naked eye. If they enter our body, they cause damage wherever they go, just like a virus would. These pollutants have a natural positive or negative charge, just like magnets. In the air, these pollutants conglomerate due to their charge, gain weight and settle down to the surface. Scientists call this process “dry deposition.”
PS accelerates dry deposition by applying pulsed radio waves or pulsed Wi-Fi in a specific manner which increases the charge of these pollutants, which causes them to be cleared much faster.
The advantage with pulsed Wi-Fi approach is it works like the Wi-Fi routers in your home, which means that it is safe to use. Just like Wi-Fi, a point-to-point network can be created around an industry, a city, a bus stand, a railway station to provide clean air for everyone.
Rejeev: How do you see the market in India? What are the major factors propelling the growth of this market?
Dr. Srikanth: The market for air pollution control equipment is growing 12% year on year. The traditional drivers for growth include increasingly stringent government regulations, growing awareness about the hazards of air pollution, etc. The COVID pandemic has been a surprising driver for growth. Many scientific studies have shown that increasing air pollution is associated with worsening COVID infection and mortality.
Rejeev: Which are the key cities where you plan to expand your business? How do you see the competition in this market?
Dr. Srikanth: Devic Earth has two broad categories of customers. The first are industries which create air pollution as part of their work. This could be cement, steel, thermal power plants and mines – usually located in rural areas away from populated centres. The other large group consists of companies which do not create pollution but wish to avoid its ill effects on their employee, customers, etc. here we see interest from commercial real estate, hotels, educational institutions, sporting events, government. Our goal is to be the leading green technology company in the next 5 years, and we work every day towards making this dream a reality.
Rejeev: Please tell about the investments that you have raised recently.
Dr. Srikanth: Devic Earth is super excited to have raised a pre series A round of funding with Blue Ashva capital to the amount of Rs 10 crore. This investment has helped us grow our team, increase the scale of our operations, and prepare for international growth.