Geothermal cooling leader GIBSS raises fund from Infuse Ventures

Infuse Ventures, a clean technology fund which is backed by IIMA CIIE, Government of India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Technology Development Board, IFC, BP, Godrej Industries, ICICI Bank, SIDBI, Bank of India and Union Bank, has announced an undisclosed amount of investment in geothermal cooling leader Green India Building Systems and Services (GIBSS).

GIBSS is a pioneer in the  geothermal  cooling  space  in  India  with  customers  across  industrial,  institutional  and  commercial setting. Intellecap was the investment advisor for GIBSS for this investment.

Founded by the Geothermal air conditioning specialists duo, Mandar Kaprekar  and Arun Shenoy, GIBSS  provides  energy  efficient  and  environmentally  responsible  technologies  that  help  reduce operating costs in buildings by up to 70 per cent to facilitate net zero energy buildings in India.

“Geothermal air-conditioning is a proven concept globally and largely used for heating in the western countries. However, geothermal is largely untapped in cooling dominated tropical countries such as India and it presents enormous potential with significant changes in design approach on the cooling side”, said, Mandar.

Arun Shenoy, co-founder and an alumnus of Oklahoma state university which houses IGSHPA, the apex global research body for geothermal air conditioning said, “With the induction of a draft national geothermal policy by the MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Govt of India) a few weeks back, we see a huge potential for the technology in India in the months to come.”

“We are delighted to join hands with Infuse Ventures in our journey forward and immensely value the sectoral depth and networks that they bring to the venture,” added, Shenoy.

“GIBSS is a pioneer of geothermal cooling in India and is helping unleash its potential. Within a short span, the team has been able to build the necessary tools and expertise to make geothermal cooling a reality in India”, said, Kunal Upadhyay, CEO, Infuse Ventures.

GIBSS had earlier raised an angel round from SRI capital and Hyderabad Angels. As a part of the investment, Kunal will join the board of the Company.

IIMA-CIIE’s  fund  Infuse  has  been  investing  in  the  cleantech  sector  and  its  investments includes  energy-management  startup  Ecolibrium  Energy,  thermal-energy  storage  startup  Tessol, renewable energy services startup REConnect and solar-pumping startup SuryaPowerMagic among others.