Renkube, a renewable energy-focused deep tech startup, has announced that it has secured USD 300,000 (INR 2.4 crores) in a seed round led by CIIE.CO.

A number of other angel networks participated in this round, including JITO Angel Network and K4 Forum Mumbai Network. Halliburton Labs, a wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton Company, is participating via Renkube’s selection for its clean energy accelerator.

The company plans to use the fresh funds to build industrial-scale manufacturing of this solar panel, secure necessary certifications, and demonstrate the technology with top industrial customers in India, the US, and Australia. The company will start with the solar photovoltaic market and, in the future, enable this technology for different use cases such as an Integrated Solar Roof, Agri PV, Solar Water Heater, and Solar Balcony.

Commenting on the announcement, Balaji Lakshmikanth, CEO and Co-founder, Renkube - "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; 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 per cent more capital cost, an experienced workforce to maintain the trackers, and also the motors and gears have a 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 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 per cent more. As long as the Renkube panel is installed as per the recommended latitude tilt, the design works across all geographies, from Singapore to London. 

"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 its 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," said Vipul Patel, Partner, Seed Investing, CIIE.CO.