Today, India stands fifth among the world’s most polluted countries, with PM2.5 levels at 38 µg/m³ (as of February 21, 2024), a staggering 3.7 times more than the WHO recommended limit. 

Imperative to mention that particle pollution in and around industrial and factory areas is even worse, and at the wrong end of this equation are the blue-collar employees who earn their living by working at industrial units situated in these areas.     

For context, some industries that contribute majorly to India’s air pollution and particulate matter challenges are chemicals, textiles, cement, steel, metal, mining, petroleum refineries, and thermal power plants. 

Besides, the country’s MSME space, which comprises 63 Mn enterprises and contributes 30% to India’s GDP, is infamous for wreaking havoc on the environment, leading to the rise in air quality concerns in the country. The situation is grimmer in metropolitan cities like Delhi and Mumbai, which are suffocated around the year due to biofuel and industrial emissions, construction dirt and road dust, among other factors. Stubble burning by farmers is another major contributor that adds to the woes of degrading air quality in the country.

To counter this, while many today use air purifiers at their homes for clean air, there are hardly any options for them once they step outside. The situation is even worse for the industrial workforce, who have no other option but to inhale air laden with all kinds of pollutants. 

Addressing this crisis is Angad Daryani’s Praan, a startup that makes air purifiers for industrial use and outdoors. With its Praan MKII (‘Mach 2’), which is a 6.5 ft tall filterless industrial air purifier, the startup aims to establish safe breathing zones in polluted cities.

The Genesis Of  Praan

Daryani founded Praan in 2017 while pursuing electrical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US. In his second year, Daryani started working on solutions to resolve the issue of urban air pollution.

Having grown up with asthma, this was a real-world challenge he could relate to the most — increasing cases of asthma among kids and adults due to worsening air quality. Therefore, he made it his mission to provide toxic-free air to all, a challenge that many governments across the globe are finding arduous to accomplish.

However, for Daryani, too, the road to MKII has been long and taxing, to say the least. The first-ever filterless air-purification prototype that came from Daryani’s garage was developed from basic over-the-shelf items like a paint bucket, a hose, lots of duct tape and, of course, a powerful suction motor.

The prototype soon took the shape of a 5-ft-tall metal structure, which he would carry to his college almost daily. 

A few months later, he returned to India but continued to work on his project, completely bootstrapped. Concurrently, he was posting the progress of his project on the internet.

At the time, deeptech was a very new concept, so hardly anyone dared to take the risk of wading into uncharted waters. However, once Daryani went back to his college, he saw 30 volunteers join his cause. As the project made strides, it got its name Praan, its first logo, and an influx of as many as 30 more individuals joining the team.

Next on the list was perfecting the prototype, and as luck would have it, Naresh Shahani (managing director at BMGI) gave an unsecured loan of $15K to fund the R&D at Praan. Shahani is one of the directors at Praan.

With enough research and funds in place, Daryani built an outdoor air purifier and named it MK One. This was the first-ever working device to have been put together by Daryani and his team. As the research was in full swing, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world, and the project came to a screeching halt.

The Pandemic Pains

In January 2020, Angad got an opportunity to connect with the cofounder of Collective Artists Network Dhruv Chitgopekar, also Praan’s angel investor, who facilitated Daryani’s introduction to numerous Indian VCs. Despite these efforts, none of them expressed confidence in Daryani’s idea.

Nevertheless, he persevered and secured soft commitments totalling $1.35 Mn from an Indian VC fund and several strategic angels, albeit under unfavourable investment terms.

Then, the pandemic struck the world, and the deal fell apart. Daryani, too, had to fly back to India. 

Not losing hope, he continued to work towards his vision and joined hands with many who could relate to his vision of creating a sustainable and clean future.

Without any capital, Daryani managed to onboard people who could work with him online and enhance the tech, software and design of the product. 

Today, Praan is backed by venture capitalists such as Social Impact Capital, Aera VC, Better Capital, Avaana Capital, Paradigm Shift Capital, and angel investors like Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Apollo Global Management’s Nipun Sahni, and Innov8’s Ritesh Malik, among others.

What impressed these investors was Daryani’s simple idea that to purify large volumes of air in cities or factories, air purifiers should be filterless. This would bring down the cost of ownership of these purifiers to near zero, marking a significant shift in the industry.

Speaking with Inc42, Daryani said that the choice to start in India was driven by the country’s unique position in the climate scenario. 

Also, India’s cost advantages, with low infrastructure and labour costs, make it a crucial hub for climate-focussed companies. 

“Starting in India allows direct supply chain oversight, access to raw materials, transparent pricing, and reduced manufacturing costs. Such control is often unavailable or exorbitantly priced in the West. India enables Praan to offer end-to-end climate solutions at a fraction of the global cost while ensuring integrity in the supply chain process,” he added.

Praan’s technology uses fans to pull in polluted air, charge the particles, and temporarily trap them in a charged cylinder. When the cylinder is full, it automatically releases the particles into a collection pocket. This process, without physical filters, relies on electric fields to move and separate particles in real time.

In the country’s cleantech space, Praan competes with the likes of Clairco, Urban Air Laboratory, AirPuro, AirOk, Devic Earth, and Pi Green Innovations, among others.

To address global air pollution, Praan offers the MKI and MKII models for large spaces, employing advanced air purification technologies designed with Ansys Fluent computational fluid dynamics. These systems capture polluted air, separate particulate matter into a collection chamber, and release cleaner air. 

Launched in April 2023, Praan’s MKII surpasses its predecessor, MKI from 2021, with 8X the filtration capacity and 10X the speed. Originally designed as a 20 ft outdoor air purification system, the current MKII model stands at 6.5 ft tall. 

“The initial 20ft size device was intended to be an outdoor air purification system for public spaces. However, we renewed our focus when we found that particulate density decreases in outdoor air as we go higher in altitude. Therefore, it was natural for us to build devices which remove pollution at the breathing level.”

With a purification rate of 1,300 cubic feet per minute, MKII can be used for spaces like factories, airports, shopping malls, hospitals, and public areas, offering efficient and impactful coverage when deployed in clusters.

Highlighting the urgency of addressing climate impact and air pollution in large industries, Daryani said that MKII addresses the critical issue of fugitive emissions. These emissions involve excessive fine dust accumulating throughout industrial processes, leading to pollution concentrations as high as 40,000 microgrammes within factories. By reducing this by 60%, the MKII significantly improves the working conditions for factory workers, making a substantial impact on air quality.

Additionally, the startup launched HIVE, a compact, high-volume air purification device constructed with aircraft-grade aluminium, in 2023.

The Road Ahead

Recently, there has been a surge of VC interest in the climate tech space. However, the challenge lies in identifying areas within climate tech that offer scalable business opportunities. It is due to this challenge that Indian investors have shied away from making notable strides in the space as compared to their global counterparts. 

Nevertheless, the startup has raised around $2 Mn since 2021. It is planning to raise ($14.4 Mn) INR 120 Cr in a Series A round soon.  

“In the pre-series stage, we focussed on proving our concept. We learned how to manufacture in India, set up our production line, and gained notable clients to validate market demand. Now, with Series A, our goal is aggressive scaling. Moving from R&D to commercial scaling, we aim to achieve a thousand installations this year for our MKII and Hive products,” Daryani told Inc42.

Praan is working in the Indian Air Purifier Market, which is projected to surpass $1.16 Bn by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 28.51% between 2023 and 2030.

With Indian startups committed to fighting air pollution, the journey of companies like Praan showcases the potential of scalable, local innovations in the country’s larger cleantech space.