New startups, familiar faces at Mumbai forum

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The inaugural Cleantech Forum for India successfully ended last week in Mumbai. Around 250 attendees had the privilege to network during the three-day event along with keynote speakers such as Minister of New and Renewable Energy Shri Vilas Muttemwar and Nicholas Parker, co-founder and managing partner of the Cleantech Group.

During the two dealflow sessions, nine selected companies had the opportunity to present, exhibit and interact with reputed local and international investors. Since the initial Cleantech Forum in 2002, presenting companies have raised over $1.4 billion USD in capital.

Pertinent cleantech sectors covered were waste management, smart-energy appliances, advanced printing and packaging solutions, Internet-based smart-grid networks, biofuels and energy efficiency.

Here are some of the highlights:

Tarun Adlakha, founder and CEO of Axon Biogenics Limited, kicked off the dealflow session. Delhi-based Axon is a waste-to-energy company focused on municipal sewage and organic wastes gasification using supercritical water gasification technology. Adlakha—a serial entrepreneur with past and present interests in healthcare, financial services, mining, mineral exploration and gemstones—has been involved actively in the past with various entrepreneurial forums, mentoring, and civil liberties movements and environmental protection efforts.

"Shit happens, and we want you to feel good about it. We want to ensure that it does not end up in your salad bowl," Adlakha said. "We want to ensure that the future generations do not pay for our resource overdraft, and at least a part of what we take from this planet is returned—profitably of course."

Next was Rajesh Solanki, founding director and chief business analyst of Mumbai-based Energos Technologies Private Limited, which builds tools and technology based on Web 2.0 to provide energy efficiency, optimization and automation solutions. The technology is used by power and water utilities, thermostats, sensors, controllers, renewable energy products such as wind turbines and solar panels, and consumer appliances.

Solanki previously started Rasan Infocom Private Limited, a Mumbai-based player in electronic security and automation.

Krishna Gopal Singh, co-founder and CTO of EnNatura Technology Ventures Private Limited, then spoke about his clean materials startup company that was incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi's Technology Business Incubation Unit. The company has developed and commercialized environmentally friendly lithography inks, which have applications in publishing, commercial printing and packaging.

Satyam Bheemarasetti introduced Gridplex, a U.S.- and Hyderabad, India-based company providing green communities with Internet-based smart-grid networks that permit both utilities and end-users to conserve electricity, water, natural gas and other critical resources. Bheemarasetti has more than 18 years' experience in the development and management of IT and enterprise software in the U.S.

Next up was Arvind Bansal, who presented Mission NewEnergy Limited, a leading renewable-energy player with an initial focus on biofuels and wind energy. The company was formerly known as Mission Biofuels India Private Limited and has operations in Australia, Malaysia, India, China and Mauritius.

The company has covered 351,000 acres with jatropha curcas planting in India and owns 3.3 megawatts of wind energy capacity in India. Mission is working to establish a presence along the entire value chain of jatropha so that it can create enough value from the by-products that it achieves near a zero cost for jatropha oil.

Jaya Kumar Bhavanasi presented his jatropha play with Hyderabad-based Nandan Biomatrix Limited, which provides medicinal plant cultivation and processing, bulk extracts, nutraceuticals, jatropha plantations, and biodiesel production. Bhavanasi said he thinks jatropha has great potential to help marginal farmers and soils across the globe participate in biodiesel production.

Nandan develops and commercializes proprietary compounds for the natural-products market and the vertically integrated bio-refinery model. Nandan has applied for patents for improved hybrids of jatropha.

Sagun Saxena then presented RegenaStar, a company based in Pune that is bringing UK-proven technology for running diesel engines on pure plant oil to the world‟s largest diesel market in India. Saxena previously co-founded CleanStar Energy and the CleanStar Trust, which are pioneering scalable and sustainable models for biodiesel feedstock production around the world.

RegenaStar won the prize for the most promising technology of the Cleantech Forum XIX in Mumbai, presented by VT Bharadwaj, vice president of Sequoia Capital India and member of the Cleantech India Advisory Board.

Next, Shashikanth Suryanarayanan presented SEDEMAC Mechatronics Private Limited, a technology startup developing energy-efficient products and solutions for automotive and alternative-energy businesses. SEDEMAC leverages its core technical expertise in translating relevant domain knowledge pertaining to these businesses into electronic control units that help achieve improved energy capture, as well as reduced emissions.

The company was incorporated in 2007 and was admitted into the business incubator located at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in May 2008. SEDEMAC stands for "SEparating DEcision Making from ACtuation," a tenet that reflects the company's philosophy toward developing mechatronic products.

Suryanarayanan worked on several advanced technology programs including the PATH Program (Demonstration of fully-automated vehicles on I-15 lanes in California) and GE’s Gen I advanced controls program for large wind turbines. At IIT Bombay, he directs a research group developing disruptive control technologies for intelligent transportation and alternate energy.

Rajan Gangji Patel led the final dealflow session with the presentation of Ontario-based Surya Ventures, which specializes in design, production and marketing of small-to-medium biomass co-generation systems for off-grid electricity, backup electricity and co-generation (electricity and heat) applications. The technology integrates with existing agro-processing for rice, sugar, and oil mills, as well as lumber operations.