Smart Joules

Digitally-enabled energy services for industrial and commercial partners. This cleantech impact enterprise helps energy intensive industries reduce costs and frees up energy in the grid

Smart Joules’ solution helps alleviate energy poverty- which still affects 30-40 crore people in India. Since 2015, the Company has been offering energy-efficiency-as-a-service to industrial and commercial partners with a team of over 115 passionate sustainability crusaders. Smart Joules’ solutions focus on optimising energy use and reducing energy waste in industries by redesigning cooling systems, retrofitting key equipment with best available technologies, and continuous operational monitoring and control through automated systems.

Their proprietary SaaS platform- DeJoule utilizes various sensors and IoT systems to track and control each equipment and optimize overall facility performance using real-time data.

Beginnings:

After nine years in the US, which included 2 academic degrees, a research stint at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and 2 years as a waste-management engineer –CEO and co-founder Arjun Gupta returned to India in 2013. The mission was to solve the core problem of energy wastage which plagued millions through a cleantech business solution - and Smart Joules was born.

Pay-as-you-save Business Model

Smart Joules has been successful in proving energy saving interventions with India’s leading hospital chains which operate 24*7 and are energy intensive. Smart Joules full-stack solutions have been adopted by Apollo, Fortis, KIMS, Aster, CARE to name a few.

Smart Joules installs state-of-art equipment, monitoring and operating systems at zero down payment. It helps hospitals save energy by fixing energy leaks by improving the overall design of energy-intensive systems like cooling, heating, compressed air and steam.

With minimum energy saving guarantees given to hospitals, Smart Joules has been able to reduce their energy expenditure by nearly 25%- which significantly improves the bottom line of the hospitals since their energy bills run into crores. Smart Joules earns its’ revenues as a percentage of the energy saved. The promise of guaranteed energy savings at zero-capex is a no-loss proposition to the hospitals and allows them to save money from day 1.

Expansion Plans

Smart Joules will deploy the invested funds to strengthen its energy management team, enhance its digital technology platform, expand its presence across hospitals and scale Joule Cool- it’s cooling-as-a-service offering for commercial buildings and industries with heavy air conditioning loads such as pharmaceuticals and data centers. With proven success in the hospital segment, Smart Joules is keen to expand the application of this fundamental technology to save energy in other sectors such as pharmaceutical industries, office buildings and other energy intensive sectors.

Investors and Partners

Raintree Family Office, ADB Ventures, and other family offices such as Burman Family Holdings, Max Ventures and well-known angels have invested in Smart Joules.

Commenting on this investment, Ms. Leena Dandekar, Founder, Raintree Family Office, said, “We invest in businesses that offer scalable and commercially viable products focused on solutions for planet and people. Our impact philosophy focuses on supporting entrepreneurs and businesses that achieve the right mix of economic and social impact while delivering competitive returns. Smart Joules’ proprietary technology and proven business model addresses the urgent need to reduce energy wastage which resonates with our impact investment philosophy.”

What makes Smart Joules an attractive investment opportunity for investors?

We believe the company has the potential to establish a sustainable moat going forward and will continue to grow sustainably for years to come.

• 1. Growing market size: As energy demand grows manifold over the next few decades in India, the energy efficiency market is expected to grow as well- most likely at a rate faster than our GDP. This will provide a long runway of growth for the company and will give Smart Joules a chance to save meaningful amounts of energy and abate significant amounts of greenhouse gases.
• 2. The first mover advantage: ESCO (Energy Service Companies) business model is growing worldwide, and Smart Joules is one of the pioneers in India.
• 3. Proven Business Model: With ~20 installations at large hospitals such as Apollo, Fortis, Arvind Eye Care and others, Smart Joules has been able to demonstrate competitive advantages in terms of specific technical and operational know-how, long-term contracts with customers and has been able to deploy capital at high rates of returns. 
• 4. Capable Management Team: The company is led by a capable management team with complementary expertise in technology, finance, and operations- all working together to create a well-run unit- which is not often seen in small, fast growing start-ups. 
• 5. Multi-sector applicability: Smart Joules’ product and service suite can be effectively used to elicit energy savings across multiple industries. Smart Joules is close to signing up clients in other segments like the pharmaceutical industry and office buildings. 
• 6. Growing focus on products and services mitigating climate change: Climate change is an incredibly significant global challenge, and companies addressing it are expected to receive financial and strategic support from DFIs and large corporations looking to transition to planet friendly operations. Hence, Smart Joules is expected to get sufficient support from the ecosystem to grow. 

Smart Joules invites industries and partnerships to support their passionate team to extend the carbon budget by 1 year in their quest to make conscious businesses more profitable, responsive and resilient. You can visit their website www.smartjoules.co.in to know more on how to make this happen.