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Zerund raises Rs 7.8 crores the highest funding raised by a startup from Assam.
Bricks made in Assam will soon be found in Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
You heard it correct- Assam startup- Zerund which has raised Rs 7.8 crores which is the highest funding raised by a startup from Assam is going pan-India.
Zerund, a Guwahati-based manufacturer of sustainable bricks, has received INR 7.8 Cr (USD 1 million) seed funding from a clutch of strategic private investors including Dreamweaver Investments. The investment was facilitated via the Gruhas ASPIRE accelerator program, a joint initiative of Gruhas Proptech Fund, The DLF Family office, and Anthill Ventures.
"We are starting in Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore in Q3 2022-23" David Gogoi, Co-Founder & CEO of Zerund told BusinessNortheast.
Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chief Minister of Assam, and Gruhas Proptech Fund promoters, Abhijeet Pai from the Puzzolana Group, Nikhil Kamath, Co-founder of Zerodha, and Rahul Talwar, Director, DLF Family Office felicitated the Gruhas ASPIRE cohort at a ceremony held today at NEDFi (North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd) Convention Centre in Guwahati.
Started in 2018 by civil engineering classmates David Gogoi, Mousum Talukdar, and Rupam Choudhury from Assam Engineering College, Zerund has brick manufacturing plants in Guwahati and Pathsala in Assam. The company manufactures high-grade, lightweight bricks which utilize 70% waste material, including plastic and fly ash. The fly ash is sourced from the National Thermal Plant Corporation (NTPC) unit at Kokrajhar, Assam.
Zerund bricks manufactures bricks made of cement, fly ash, organic chemicals and plastic waste. The startup has designed a three-process machine that shreds waste plastics into microbeads which are used in the brick making mixture. These bricks are light weight, weather-proof and earthquake and fire resistant, pest defiant and have greater tensile strength.
"This was our final year college project in Assam engineering college, 2018. We thought of innovation in construction material along with impact on the environmental aspect as well. Hence we thought of making something with waste materials like waste plastic, industrial waste fly ash etc. After more than 30 trials we were able to come up with our final prototype" Gogoi said.
He said these bricks are used for homes. "NRL township, Starbucks , PMAY projects, Assam secretariat all have used our product. Currently mainly sold in all of north east India and Bengal with more than 1 cr revenue monthly" he revealed.
He said 23 cr bricks will be sold annually by 2026" he said.
Zerund's bricks, which are 15% cheaper and 45% lighter than the industry standard,
" The ompany has raised 13 cr till now" he said.
The company will use the new funding to increase its annual production capacity, which stands at more than 25 lakh bricks and expand its sales and distribution network beyond Assam to other Indian states in the coming months.
"We are on track to boost our annual production ninefold to 2.3 crore bricks in 2026, in line with the expanding demand for sustainable bricks," he said
"Our investors in this round comprise experts with an in-depth knowledge of the Proptech (Property-Technology) space. Their support will be critical as we grow beyond our base in Assam and take our homegrown idea to the rest of India and beyond" he said.
India's estimated annual demand for construction blocks by green-rated developers is Rs 10,000 crores. India also generates 270 million tons of fly ash annually and 15000 tons of waste plastic daily, highlighting the potential for eco-friendly solutions to combat carbon emissions.
"The construction industry in India is growing at a CAGR of 15.7% and needs grassroots innovation to prepare for a future that places sustainability front and center of all activity," said Abhijeet Pai, Co-Founder of Gruhas Proptech Fund. "Bricks are the fundamental building blocks in construction, and innovations such as Zerund's product lie at the heart of Gruhas Proptech's focus on decarbonizing construction and real estate. We will work closely with the Zerund team as they scale their business to meet the increased emphasis on sustainability to future-proof the construction industry".
In 2021, Zerund raised Rs 4 crore from investors, including NEDFi Venture Capital Ltd. (NVCL) and Villgro Foundation.
Zerund is one of the seven start-ups belonging to the Gruhas ASPIRE accelerator program. A partnership between Gruhas Proptech Fund, DLF Family Office, and Anthill Ventures, Gruhas ASPIRE (Accelerating Sustainable Proptech in Real Estate) chooses high-potential start-ups from four Proptech streams:
The other start-ups which have received funding in Gruhas ASPIRE’s first cohort include:
Modcave- a shelter-tech start-up that manufactures innovative prefabricated, modular, temporary shelters that can be deployed anywhere. Modcave’s design allows the shelter to be compressed by 4x, enabling a 90 per cent reduction in logistics and storage costs.
Realiti.io- an integrated solution that empowers real estate brokers to create and manage their digital presence and collaborate with other brokers through a managed service. The service ensures the fulfilment of demand and supply and a 40 per cent reduction in time from lead-to-sale.
Safearth– India’s fastest-growing, fully integrated platform for solar projects, Safearth encompasses procurement, EPC, as well as financing support for projects of anysize. The start-up has already captured 6.67 per cent in the C&I Rooftop Solar space and 5 per cent In the overall distributed solar market in India.
Settl- a new-age proptech start-up that is reimagining the co-living experience for urban professionals through data-driven models for property selection and differentiated community engagement.
SustVest- a sustainability fintech platform that enables retail investors to help finance India’s growing renewable energy demands through fractional ownership of solar projects.
Tellus Habitat–a start-up that is working to solve India’s water shortage issue through its proprietary decentralized wastewater treatment machine that can be installed in any home. The machine is scalable to a community and municipality-leveland reduces water use by 40 per cent.
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