Geothermal Air-Conditioning Pioneer GIBSS Raises Series-A Funding From responsAbility Ventures I and Infuse Ventures

MUMBAI, August 7, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

responsAbility, one of the world's leading asset managers in the field of development investments, along with Infuse Ventures, India's top sustainability and clean technology fund, has invested an undisclosed amount in Series-A funding round in geothermal air-conditioning leader, GIBSS. GIBSS is a pioneer in the geothermal air-conditioning space in India and is working with over 400 buildings across industrial, institutional and commercial setting to help them achieve the net zero energy path while simultaneously reducing their operating expenses by up to 70%. Intellecap Investment Banking practice acted as the sole advisor for GIBSS in this transaction.

GIBSS was founded in 2010 by Arun Shenoy and Mandar Kaprekar, both with more than 30 years of combined experience in the geothermal cooling and heating space with leading organizations such as Climatemaster, Trane and Carrier.

"With 100% water savings and up to 60% energy savings compared to traditional air-conditioning and industrial process cooling systems, geothermal technology remains the most attractive prospect for significant life cycle operating savings across building verticals that require comfort/process cooling or heating, especially in data centers, hospitals, office buildings, pharma and manufacturing," said Mandar Kaprekar, who is one among the six IGSHPA (International Ground Source Heat Pump Association) accredited professionals in South East Asia.

Arun Shenoy, co-founder and an alumnus of Oklahoma State University which houses IGSHPA, the apex global research body for geothermal air conditioning said, "We wanted to make this technology commercially viable so that every building around the world can reduce its demand and carbon footprint by a significant margin before exploring the supply side solutions such as solar, wind etc. With a payback of less than 2 years and an economic life of over 30 years, GIBSS proprietary and innovative geothermal designs and strategies are a game changer in the air-conditioning and process cooling/heating industry. With the induction of the national geothermal policy by the MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy) and the integrated smart city initiative by the Government of India, we see large scale adoption of this technology in India in the months to come." Arun continued, "Both responsAbility and Infuse Ventures bring remarkable sectoral depth and global ecosystems and networks in the sustainability and clean technology domain. We are elated to partner with them in our journey forward."

GIBSS had previously raised funds from Infuse Ventures, Hyderabad Angels and SRI Capital, founded by serial entrepreneur and angel investor Sashi Reddi. In June 2015, GIBSS also received a grant facility under the Seed Capital Assistance Facility (SCAF) implemented through the United Nations Environment Program, the Asian Development Bank and the African Development Bank. As a part of the current investment, Akshay Dua from responsAbility will join the board of the Company.

Commenting on the occasion, Rik Vyverman, Global Head Ventures Equity at responsAbility said, "We are excited to partner with GIBSS on transforming how energy is used in India. Globally, geothermal technology has been a huge success with millions of installations world-wide. The offering to the corporate sector is extremely compelling, and the proof lies in the backing by marquee names in corporate India who are using this already. At responsAbility, we recognise the important role for encouraging use of such transformational technologies in emerging economies. We believe the adoption of geothermal technology will increase significantly in the near term, driven not just by ever increasing electricity costs, but also the substantial reduction in water consumption that the technology is able to provide customers."

"We are delighted to join hands with responsAbility in helping GIBSS achieve the next phase of growth. GIBSS' has been seeing great interest from the industrial and commercial sector for its geothermal cooling solutions and the current round will help it scale faster. Geothermal cooling could play a big role in Smart Cities projects and we believe the upcoming geothermal mission will be a great boost to this energy efficient and environment-friendly replacement for traditional air-conditioning," said Kunal Upadhyay, CEO, Infuse Ventures.

IIMA-CIIE's fund Infuse has been investing actively in the cleantech sector and its investments includes energy-management startup Ecolibrium Energy, thermal-energy storage startup Tessol, renewable energy services startup REConnect and solar-pumping startup SuryaPowerMagic among others.

Gagandeep Bakshi, Associate Director, Intellecap Investment Banking said, "GIBSS was the first to introduce the geothermal technology in India and has proven the efficacy of the technology with installations at esteemed locations. With energy savings of up to 60%, this has a significant potential in India and shall be the future of air-conditioning. Getting responsAbility and Infuse as an investor partner is a great milestone for GIBSS and we are confident that Arun and Mandar would be able to take the company to new heights."

In addition to geothermal, GIBSS also offers energy-saving LED lighting solutions and efficient hot water co-generation systems for boiler replacements. Through its suite of innovative ultra energy-efficient products and solutions such as pay from savings financing model and performance bank guarantees, GIBSS has generated annual savings of over eight million electrical units and reduced over 150 million litres of water consumption till date. Some of the marquee customers for GIBSS offerings include Spencer's Retail, JSW, Indian School of Business, Cipla, Daimler, Godrej, Fortis, P&G, HUL, Tata communications, Max Hospitals, Leela group, Zydus Cadilla, Acme Pharma, Manipal Group, First source solutions, Select City Mall, HHI, Mahindra & Mahindra, TRIL and others.

About Green India Building Systems and Services (GIBSS) 

GIBSS, a zero net energy building systems company, helps businesses reduce costs and raise productivity through compelling "triple bottom line" energy efficiency products and solutions in their buildings. GIBSS portfolio of Geothermal cooling systems, Hot water co-generation systems, lighting and Indoor air quality systems reduces operating costs in buildings by up to 70%. With its zero initial investment or Pay from Savings model and performance bank guarantees, GIBSS has made state-of-the-art technologies commercially viable to its clients.

GIBSS, a pioneer in geothermal cooling technology, has bagged several prestigious awards for its product and solution innovations in the high performance building systems space. Some of the honors include the India innovation award by the Ministry of Science & Technology, ClimateSolver Award by World Wide Fund, Sankalp Award for the most sustainable clean technology company in India, Parivartan Award for Sutainability leadership, India Africa Award supported by the Ministry of External Affairs, CNBC Samsung Innovation Quotient.

For further information visit: http://www.gibss.in; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIBSS

About responsAbility Investments AG 

responsAbility Investments AG is one of the world's leading asset managers in the field of development investments and offers professionally-managed investment solutions to both private and institutional investors. The company's investment vehicles supply debt and equity financing to non-listed firms in emerging economies and developing countries. Through their activities, these firms help to meet the basic needs of broad sections of the population and to drive economic development - leading to greater prosperity in the long term.

responsAbility currently has USD 2.7 billion of assets under management that is invested in around 530 companies in more than 90 countries. Founded in 2003, the company is headquartered in Zurich and has local offices in Hong Kong, Lima, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Nairobi, Oslo and Paris. Its shareholders include a number of reputable institutions in the Swiss financial market as well as its own employees. responsAbility is registered with the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA.

For further information, visit: http://www.responsAbility.com

About IIMA-CIIE's Infuse Ventures 

Set-up by IIMA's Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship Infuse Ventures is a sustainability and energy focussed early-stage and incubation fund supporting entrepreneurs across renewables, resource efficiency and other sustainability domains. Infuse Ventures is backed by Government of India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Technology Development Board, IFC, BP, Godrej Industries, ICICI Bank, SIDBI, Bank of India and Union Bank. CIIE also operates India's only cleantech focussed accelerator and has also recently grant-seeded several startups in the cleantech sector.

For further information, visit: http://www.infuseventures.in

About Intellecap's Investment Banking Division 

Intellecap is a pioneer and a leader in providing innovative business solutions that help build and scale profitable and sustainable enterprises dedicated to social and environmental change. Intellecap's Investment Banking business has consistently ranked amongst the top 5 most active transaction advisors in India. With significant investor relationships that span the globe, Intellecap Investment Banking has helped clients to raise over INR 11 billion in equity alone.

For further information, visit: http://www.intellecap.com

Media Contact:
Ramdas Shenoy
[email protected]
+91-22-67525361
Director Marketing
GIBSS