Solar Tech Startup Renkube Raises Rs 2.4 Cr in Seed Funding Round

Renewable energy-focused deep tech startup Renkube has secured Rs 2.4 crore ($300K) in a seed round led by CIIE.CO. Halliburton Labs, JITO Angel Network, and K4 Mumbai Network also participated in the round. 
 
The Bangalore-based company claimed that it is the world’s first company to offer a motion-free tracking solution embedded in the glass design for solar panels.
 
The company is planning to use the fresh funds to build industrial-scale manufacturing of solar panels, secure necessary certifications and demonstrate the technology with top industrial customers in India, the US and Australia. It will start with the solar photovoltaic (PV) market and, in future, enable this technology for different use cases such as an integrated solar roof, agri PV, solar water heater and solar balcony.
 
Renkube was founded by Balaji Lakshmikanth Bangolae, Dr Lakshmi Santhanam, Deepika Gopal and Dr Janardhana Vittal Rao in 2017 to build a sustainable future by producing cutting-edge products in the renewable energy field.
 
Commenting on the development, Balaji Lakshmikanth, CEO and Co-founder of Renkube, said, “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 today have only mechanical trackers as their only option to increase energy yield which results in 15% more capital cost, an experienced workforce to maintain the trackers, and also the motors and gears have limited warranty. Renkube intends to replace this cumbersome technology with its AI based smart glass design that once installed lasts for the lifetime of the panel with absolutely zero maintenance overheads. Just like how a sunflower that tracks the sun to maximize the yield, our innovative light harvesting glass tracks the sun and improves the energy yield of the solar panels by 20% more.
 
The company in a statement said that “as long as the Renkube panel is installed as per the recommended latitude tilt, the design works across all geographies from Singapore to London.”
 
Commenting on the development, 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 a strong defensibility and first mover advantage in the clean tech space.”