Comments
The Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) on Monday announced that its sustainability and clean technology fund Infuse Ventures will invest Rs 3.5 crore for an undisclosed stake in a Chennai-based probiotic chemicals company Proklean Technologies Pvt Ltd.
Infuse Ventures is backed by the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Technology Development Board, IFC, BP, SIDBI, Godrej Industries, ICICI Bank, Bank of India and Union Bank.
Proklean Technologies manufactures completely natural products of probiotic origin, which can replace or reduce the use of currently used chemicals in various industrial and commercial applications like leather and textile processing, hospitality and household cleaning. All products are sold under the brand name ‘Proviera’, a CIIE spokesperson said here.
Proklean uses a probiotic technology which makes the products 100% bio-degradable, natural and non-toxic. Founded by Dr. Sivaram Pillai, and two IIM-A alumni B. Chandrasekhar and Vishwadeep Kuila, the company has already developed a suite of products for customers in the textile and leather processing industries with marquee names in India including Vardhaman Group, Raymond, Mafatlal, Welspun, JK Mills, among others.
Proklean also has customers in the USA, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Turkey, Thailand, China, Philippines, Australia and Bangladesh.
Dr Pillai, former CEO of SCD Probiotics, USA, and ex-head of the bio-products business at Murugappa Group prior to founding Proklean in 2009, said his company’s technology differed from most green technologies in that his firm did not require any subsidy, either from the government or the customer. “In fact, our products are cost and performance competitive compared to traditional chemical products in every application that we serve. Our products, besides being biodegradable, save water, processing time and in some cases even energy.”
Proklean had earlier raised an angel round from Chennai Angels, a few of their IIM-A batchmates and SCD Probiotics, USA.
The IIMA-CIIE’s fund Infuse has been investing in the clean-tech sector, including energy-management startup Ecolibrium Energy, thermal-energy storage startup Tessol, renewable energy services startup REConnect, solar-pumping startup Surya PowerMagic and geothermal HVAC provider GIBSS, among others.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.