In 2016, during their time as students at NIT Calicut, Swapnil Shrivastav and Venkatesh R witnessed a severe water shortage on campus and in the city of Calicut due to a dry spell. As hostel residents, they were often left with only one bucket of water per person per day, and water tankers were the only source of water supply. They were motivated to solve this with technology. They developed the idea of ‘water-from-air’ and initially had to utilize condensation-based technology. However, as this technology was inefficient and costly, they sought to create a fresh approach.
In 2018, they participated in Water Abundance XPrize where 98 companies across the world worked on developing 100% renewable methods of generating water from air. Uravu was among the top five finalists in the competition and won a grant of $50,000.
Soon after, Govinda Balaji joined the team to contribute his engineering expertise. This marked the birth of Uravu Labs. Uravu’s success story was fueled by these timely choices. Uravu was incorporated on 30 October 2019.
Uravu Labs sets itself apart from the rest with its unique ability to use liquid desiccants and various renewable heat sources, such as solar, biomass, and waste heat to achieve 100% renewability. Moreover, the technology enables scalability, producing hundreds of thousands of liters of water every day.
Designer and innovator Swapnil Shrivastav (CEO, Business and Operations) reveals more details…
Please explain the process of creating water out of thin air and how you went about implementing the technology.
Uravu employs a patent-pending, proprietary desiccant-based solution powered by renewable energy, offering superior efficiency and reliability compared to existing options. With this modular unit, we have scaled to produce 4,000 litres per day.
The process operates by utilizing a salt solution, known as desiccant materials, which are substances that readily absorb moisture from the air. Depending on the relative humidity of the location, they can adjust the amount of desiccant to facilitate the absorption process.
After absorption, the solution is transferred to another chamber, where it is heated to about 60 to 65 degrees Celsius. This heat can be sourced from renewable energy, such as solar or waste heat from industries like data centers or distilleries. The heating causes the absorbed moisture to vaporize, resembling steam, which is then condensed to produce fresh water from the air.
This process is akin to distillation but operates at a lower temperature. Once the vapour is released and converted into water from the air, the liquid salt solution returns to its original state and is cycled back to the absorber chamber to repeat the process.
Currently, implementation is managed through a central hub that handles water production, packaging, bottling, quality checks, and delivery. In the future, we plan to deploy these units directly at customers’ sites, enabling them to produce water on-site for their drinking and industrial needs.
Tell us about the challenges you faced, and how you overcame them.
In the early stages, developing our hardware presented significant challenges. We went through numerous iterations to refine our technology, which was both time-consuming and complex. Additionally, securing funding was a major hurdle.
We overcame these challenges by continuously improving our design based on feedback and testing. We also navigated the funding landscape by leveraging equity investments and grants, which provided the necessary resources to advance our development. This approach allowed us to successfully develop and scale our Water FromAir technology while bringing a reliable solution to the market.
What is the volume of water you generate on a daily basis? And how is it being used?
Uravu Labs currently produces 4,000 litres of high-quality drinking water daily. By adopting Water-as-a-Service (WaaS) model, Uravu caters to the premium hospitality sector in Bangalore. We offer premium, glass-bottled beverages in 250ml, 500ml, and 750ml sizes, customized to meet our clients’ specific needs.
Starting with one client a year ago, we now supply over 50 outlets across Bangalore, including renowned names like The Leela, Hyatt Centric, Roxie, and Byg Brewski Brewing Co. Today, with a daily capacity of 4,000 liters, we serve premium hospitality sectors with eco-friendly practices—reusing glass bottles and minimizing environmental impact. Our vision extends beyond hospitality; envisioning applications in green hydrogen, pharmaceuticals, and beyond.
How did your association with the hospitality industry start and who are your clients?
Our journey into the hospitality sector began in January 2023 when we were producing 1,000 liters per day (LPD) from our R&D systems. Through market research, we identified a strong demand for high-quality and sustainable water solutions within the hospitality industry. We introduced our concept of water-from-air to Roxie, a premium restaurant and India’s first craft house which became our first client. Roxie was seeking something unique that aligned with their sustainability ethos, making our solution a perfect fit.
Since then, we have expanded our capacity fourfold to 4,000 LPD and now serve over 50 premium clients across Bangalore, including several 4- and 5-star hotels. Today, we supply around 3,000-4,000 bottles daily to our esteemed hospitality partners. In a competitive hospitality landscape, where differentiation is key, our solution offers a unique selling point by saving groundwater and promoting sustainability.
What kind of investment has gone into your venture? Tell us also about the revenue-making strategies.
Uravu Labs has raised $3.5 million through equity and various grants. We currently operate a 4,000 LPD facility in Bangalore, where we produce packaged beverages FromAir for the premium hospitality industry. Our revenue strategy involves a Water-as-a-Service (WaaS) model, providing end-to-end service—including production, packaging, and delivery—without requiring CapEx (capital expenditure) or daily operations from our clients. We now serve over 50 clients across Bangalore.
Our expansion plan includes increasing our hub’s capacity to 10,000 LPD. Additionally, we are developing a 2,000 LPD modular system that can be installed in commercial buildings and used for industrial applications. This system fits in a 40ft shipping container and can be powered by electricity and low-grade waste heat, aiming to reduce groundwater consumption and optimize waste heat use in industrial settings.
