[Funding alert] Raintree Family Office, ADB arm, others invest $4.9M in Smart Joules

Energy efficiency company Smart Joules has raised $4.9 million (about Rs 36.75 crore) in funding from a clutch of investors, including Raintree Family Office.

Other investors who participated in the round included ADB Ventures (the Asian Development Bank's venture arm), Sangam Ventures, Max I Limited, cKinetics Accelerator, Saket Burman from Dabur family and six other marquee angels from India and the US, an official statement said.

The money raised will be utilised to strengthen the energy management team, enhance digital technology platform, expand presence across hospitals and scale its cooling-as-a-service offering for commercial buildings, the statement added.

Founded by Arjun P Gupta, Ujjal Majumdar and Sidhartha Gupta, Smart Joules eliminates energy waste in power intensive industries through proprietary technology and a unique business model that allows it to guarantee between 10-30 percent energy savings to its clients.

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Raintree is a single-family office committed to tackling India's chronic environmental and social issues through a hybrid model of a private philanthropic foundation and a socially conscious investing arm, it said.

"We invest in businesses that offer scalable and commercially viable products focused on solutions for the planet and people," Raintree's founder Leena Dandekar said.

Smart Joules' proprietary technology and proven business model addresses the urgent need to reduce energy wastage, which resonates with our impact investment philosophy, she added.

The platform offers capital expenditure (CapEx)-free retrofits by improving overall design of energy intensive systems like cooling, heating, compressed air and steam in commercial and industrial facilities, and replacing ageing energy-intensive equipment with best-in-class energy efficient equipment. Their DeJoule technology platform then utilises various sensors and IoT controllers to track and control each equipment and optimise overall facility performance in real-time using data. This technology allows Smart Joules to guarantee its clients 15 percent energy savings. 

(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)