According to a Lancet Planetary Health analysis, 1.7 million people died in India in 2017 due to indoor and ambient air pollution. Many individuals nowadays strive to keep plants at home in order to breathe better air.

According to a United Nations research, indoor air pollution can be five times worse than outside air pollution, according to Sanjay Maurya, CEO of UBreathe.

While maintaining a plant in the room might assist, it does have certain restrictions. Even in a small space, 500 to 1,000 plants are required to significantly enhance air quality. Filters in traditional air purifiers must be replaced every three or four months. However, these filters are not biodegradable. As a result, it is not a good long-term option, according to Maurya.

The filtering system built by Gurgaon-based UBreathe, according to the soft-spoken Maurya, co-founder of the biotech business, is a feasible answer.

UBreathe, which was incubated at IIT-Ropar, employs Ubreathe’s “Breathing Roots” technology to enhance a plant’s natural process of eliminating pollutants from the air. According to the co-founder of Ubreathe, the system catches impurities such as harmful gases and particle matter.

The majority of the cleansing occurs within the soil root zone of plants. He explains the process by saying that plants absorb contaminants as well as air and transport it to the soil for cleaning. This is known as phytoremediation.

According to a US Environmental Protection Agency study, toxins drawn into the roots are either stored underground, broken down, or discharged as vapour.

However, it occurs extremely quietly, which is a significant weakness of the technology. By eliminating air toxins, UBreathe’s technology promotes phytoremediation and improves indoor air quality. The goal was to make the soil root zone more breathable, allowing more and more air to enter. The mechanically engineered technology of UBreathe purifiers aggressively draws air into the soil root zone. According to Maurya, the technique helps to multiply the impact in one plant by over 50 to 100 times.

Peace lilies, snake plants & spider plants are among the plants used by the firm. It employs UV disinfection technology and a stack of filters housed in a custom-made wooden box. Suction pressure is created in the box by a centrifugal fan. Vents around the box allow the cleaned air near the roots to escape.

These purifiers are a more environmentally friendly option. They do not require any filter replacement. If the plant dies, it can be replaced with any of the recommended species from a nearby nursery. Mechanical purifiers, he claims, require regular filter changes.

Maurya had the notion of creating something that would bring respite from air pollution while studying at the Faculty of Management Studies in Delhi in 2017-2019 after graduating from IIT-Kanpur. He had long harboured commercial ambitions, and Delhi’s bad air quality provided him with a focal point.

Maurya stated that he began to investigate and comprehend the operation of an air purifier. He also tested with a few plants and discovered that plants indeed clean the air, but only insignificantly, he claims.

Several plants are required to significantly enhance the air quality in a small space. He began to consider strategies to improve plant purification by using one or two plants. This subject is being researched in South Korea and at a few European colleges. He became more interested in cleaning plants after being inspired by them.

In 2018, he enlisted the help of his IIT-Kanpur seniors Akhil Gupta, Inderjeet Rao, and Akshay Goyal to develop a strategy for plant-based purification. It took them about a year and a half to get to a prototype, which coincided with Maurya’s graduation from FMS. The company was founded in the same year.

They claim to have discovered a method that can increase the air purifying impact of a single plant by 50 to 100 times. According to the firm website, the product has been tested and approved by NABL Labs and has been evaluated and endorsed by AIIMS Delhi faculty. Six patent applications have been submitted by the firm in Europe and India. In 2019, the UNDP Accelerator Labs awarded the startup for “Innovative solutions to air pollution.”

UBreathe made Rs 28.2 lakh in income in 2020-21, Rs 44.5 lakh in 2021-22, and Rs 60 lakh (provisional) in 2022-23. This year, it aims to earn Rs 4 crore.

According to Bahani Ray, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at IIT-Delhi, UBreathe is working on a promising technique. Bahani said he was aware of several experiments in which plants were used to clean the air, but UBreathe is the first to develop a firm based on the concept. The technology is solid, but the firm has to do more research, especially with the plants that are used. Extensive botanical study will be beneficial.

The assistant professor, on the other hand, says she cannot comment on the company’s claim that its technology can increase the air purifying impact of a single plant by about 50 to 100 times because no quantitative data for this claim has been published.

According to a Ministry of Science and Technology Press Information Bureau announcement from September 2021, IIT-Ropar Director Rajeev Ahuja states that this product is the world’s first live plant-based air purifier. According to studies conducted by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories & the laboratory at IIT-Ropar, the Air Quality Index for a 150-square-foot room lowers from 311 to 39 in 15 minutes after using UBreathe Life.

UBreathe was founded with an initial investment of close to Rs 50 lakh from the co-founders’ purses. The firm has received no outside investment. Own R&D becomes tough to support through standard VC financing. However, the Government of India, the Government of Maharashtra, and the Government of Uttar Pradesh have all shown strong support for them. According to Maurya, they have earned some of the most renowned funds available in India in the biotech industry, as well as some minor funding from the United Nations and IIM-Ahmedabad.

However, it has not been profitable. The co-founders recognise that they must focus more on profit generation, but they note that this is usual in an R&D innovation organisation.

Pricing, according to Maurya, is an issue that has to be addressed. UBreathe Mini (about Rs 4,000), UBreathe Life (approximately Rs 33,000), and a HEPA-free, wall-mounted, modular air purifier UBreathe Wall (roughly Rs 1.5 lakh per unit depending on the size) are the company’s three natural air purifiers for homes and offices.

UBreathe claims 2,000 users in India and is participating in trial programmes in the United Kingdom and Germany.

Last year, the firm made headlines when it received a capital commitment of about Rs 1.5 crore from Namita Thapar, co-host of the TV show Shark Tank India Season 2. Thapar also serves as CEO of Emcure Pharmaceuticals. The acquisition is now undergoing due diligence, and it is scheduled to conclude by July 2023.

When UBreathe received the financing commitment in November 2022, it was valued at Rs 10 crore pre-money on the show, according to Maurya, who adds that they haven’t done a valuation since then.

For the time being, the co-founders of UBreathe are concentrating on developing their product and lowering the price.

Conclusion.

By increasing the effectiveness of ordinary plants, UBreathe offers a green alternative to typical indoor mechanical purifiers.