New Delhi, Sep 27: Atmospheric water generator firm Airowater Pvt Ltd is looking to raise around USD 20 million (nearly Rs 150 crore) to fund its expansion plans, including increasing production capacity, strengthening presence in India and overseas markets like Africa, and ramping up its R&D, according to a top company official.
The company, which uses patented technology to create water from humidity in the air to provide impurities-free drinking water, sells machines ranging from 25 litre per day capacity, priced at around Rs 50,000, to 1,000 litre per day capacity, tagged at about Rs 9.5 lakh.
“As of now, we have around 200 to 500 machines manufacturing options at our plant on a monthly basis. The capacity has to come before the marketing. So if we start growing, definitely we would look forward to larger capacity,” Airowater Pvt Ltd CEO Siddharth Shah told PTI.
When asked by how much the company is looking to hike the production capacity, Shah said, “From 200 to 500 (machines per month), we should be entering into a range of 1,000 to 1,500 (machines) per month kind of a capacity very soon.”
In terms of future investments, Shah said, “As you start scaling up, it would require to grow into that segment also in terms of fabrication. So we are looking at another investment of around Rs 20-25 crore to fulfill the overall demand which we are projecting.”
When asked about the funding requirement, he said the company is looking at raising USD 20 million for R&D as well as sales and marketing.
“We’ve already pitched (to) a lot of free funds and sustainable funds and they are interested. They are sitting in due to the COVID-19, so lots of projects are still pending. But we have been presenting to people and they are interested in the company,” Shah said.
He said the company has till now invested around Rs 20-25 crore for delivering the product to corporates, public sector enterprises as well as individual customers.
The company has installed its machines for 200 customers, including corporate clients such as Standard Chartered, Tata group firm Titan, public sector enterprises such as ONGC and IOCL, Shah said.
“Government tenders have now come from both Goa as well as Lakshadweep to make this machine as their standard purchase of water…So what we have created till now is the base where we have been approved by the government to private agencies to private companies.
“And of course once this technology becomes word of mouth, we are looking at a good reach and availability for the customers,” he added.
The Mumbai-based firm currently has 42 distributors across India, including in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Kolkata. It also has dedicated distributors in Singapore and Africa.
Commenting on the company’s overseas expansion plans, Shah said there is a huge opportunity in places which have water scarcity like Africa and the Maldives, which is already importing water from India.
“They have the biggest problem that they don’t have storage of water. So if I can give them the live water every day then I could settle. So there is a simple solution for a lot of people,” Shah said.
Explaining how the company’s product works, he said, “These are basically machines which convert air into drinkable water and store them. So you can transfer them through pipes to different water coolers and different dispensers.”
Backed by three Indian and six US patents, Airowater’s products utilise the moisture content in the air to create pure drinking water through a patented four-step filtration process. (PTI)
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