IIT-M start-up Planys Technologies raises ₹43 crore in round led by investor Ashish Kacholia

Underwater infrastructure testing start-up Planys Technologies has raised ₹43 crore in equity funding led by investor Ashish Kacholia. Samarthya Advisors, Golden Birch Investments, Cogniphy Angel Fund, Krishna Defence, and Impact India Investment Partners LLC also participated in the funding round. Some existing investors also participated in the round, which saw exits from many first-round seed investors.

Founded in 2015 by IIT-Madras alumni and faculty, including Tanuj Jhunjhunwala, Vineet Upadhyay, Prof Prabhu Rajagopal and Krishnan Balasubramanian, Planys is a deep tech start-up that emerged as a spin-out from the Centre for Non-Destructive Evaluation at IIT-M. It was then incubated at IIT Madras’ Incubation Cell and officially incorporated in June 2015.

“Our product, which began as a pipeline inspection robot, has evolved to have use cases across sectors. We have added more features in the underwater inspection area and towards data analytics and reporting,” Tanuj Jhunjhunwala, co-founder, Planys, told businessline. “We are also in the protoype stage for our underwater drone for the defence sector and will continue to focus on this use case,” he added. Planys is part of the Centre’s defence innovation framework IDEX and is supported by their grant and support for defence use cases.

The investment will also go towards adding more features around infrastructure inspections through advancements in marine robotics, global expansion, and in strengthening digital analytics and reporting platforms, the company said in a release.

“We intend to grow our operational capacity and enhance the inventory of underwater inspection solutions, covering high-end applications such as non-destructive testing of metal and concrete structures, specialised inspection robotics for the process and hydrocarbon industry, real-time monitoring applications, and advanced digital reporting solutions,” the company’s Chief Technology Officer, Vineet Upadhyay, said.

IIT-M professor Prabhu Rajagopal, who is a co-founder and mentor to Planys, notes that despite challenges in scaling academic projects into commercial establishments, Planys has both a team of driven entrepreneurs and product-market fit that has ensured growth and evolution over the years.

“Planys addresses a large market of underwater asset maintenance with its technology that pinpoints defects with precision, benefiting high-value assets such as dams, bridges, and refineries, to extend their asset life with timely maintenance,” investor Kacholia said in a statement.

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