Neo San Raises USD 1.5 Million in Seed Funding

Clean technology startup Neo San Pvt Ltd announced a seed funding round, with USD 1.5 Million raised in total, at a post-money valuation of USD 7.2 Million. The round's investors include Ashish Kacholia, Anirban Lahiri (India pro-golfer), Aaradhana Jhunjhunwala, Aman Poddar, Adithya Mathews, S. Chikkarangappa (India pro-golfer), Apurva Damani, Mammen Kurien, Sandeep Telang, and Vanshay Goenka, Siddhi M.

Neo San is a clean-tech startup that is solving hazardous waste management through innovative products that use proprietary technology. Their flagship product, Neo-X, is a decentralised waste incinerator that uses clean energy to treat waste output at the source.

“We will use this round of funding to scale our technologies across India, and to enable larger systems to support the country’s waste-handling needs,” said Dhwaj Bagrecha, Co-Founder, Neo San. “Currently, we’re building decentralised networks of people and machines that will allow our growing cities to better manage waste locally and efficiently, reducing the overall emissions from this process by over 90% compared with the current scenario.”

A combination of their commercial and industrial incinerators will help contain dry-reject waste on-site, be it a residence, office, school, airport, or factory, reducing millions of dollars spent on trucks, fuel, land, and energy, thus reducing the operational cost burden and emissions for municipalities and private companies.

“Land-use and open burning is one of the biggest problems,” said Dhwaj Bagrecha. “The way I see it, any land that becomes a dump loses its value completely, be it for agriculture, development, or as a natural habitat. Toxic ash and contaminated water from waste enter our soil and water sources, poisoning the food, water, and air we consume. As time passes, the problems increase in the way of a butterfly effect, which is a global phenomenon.”

India generates over 25 million tonnes of reject-waste each year, over 30% of which is not even collected. Current systems are extremely centralised and come with the burden of carrying mixed waste a few hundred kilometres away from its source to be handled. 70% of our waste budgets are spent on this movement, which Neo San can positively change.

“India has a big landfill shortage problem in towns big and small. Everywhere we go, we see plastic lying around by the roadside and on vacant plots. Minimising the flow of volumes of combustible materials to landfills while minimising SOx and NOx emissions is an innovative Incineration based solution being offered by NeoSan. Rather than send the waste to overflowing landfills, small volumes of waste can be incinerated on site by green minded corporate and commercial establishments in an environmentally friendly manner with minimal toxic gas emissions. I am hoping that wider adoption of Neosan’s incinerator technology will help in a Clean India with no plastic lying around our country.” said Mr. Ashish Kacholia, a lead investor in this round.

The Neo-X is a localised incinerator that can be installed conveniently on any site. It uses proprietary technology to reach temperatures of 1200°C in under two minutes. Handling reject, non-recyclable waste in these machines can reduce emissions by 98% compared to current pollution standards. Designed and manufactured entirely in India, the Neo-X consumes only 0.2 units of electricity per cycle, bringing the operational cost of waste management down to less than a few rupees per kilogram. It is highly safe, CE compliant, and also captures important live data around the waste it burns to help calculate carbon offsets.

"Early next quarter, we are set to launch our advanced modular incinerator, capable of processing one tonne of toxic waste per day. This innovation will significantly enhance the handling and incineration efficiency for key bulk waste generators in the pharmaceutical, textile, chemical, and other manufacturing sectors. By integrating this solution on-site, we provide a more efficient and eco-friendly approach to waste management," says Alistair Sean D'rozario, Co-founder of Neo San, who spearheaded the development of this technology.