Chakr Innovation Secures $23 Million to Scale its Groundbreaking Emission-Control Technology

Gurugram-based clean-tech firm Chakr Innovation has raised $23 million in a new funding round led by growth-stage investor Iron Pillar. This significant capital injection will fuel the expansion of Chakr's pioneering technology, which captures particulate matter from diesel generators and transforms it from a harmful pollutant into a valuable resource, embodying the principles of a circular economy.

The Pervasive Problem of Diesel Soot

Across India and much of the developing world, diesel generators are a ubiquitous source of power backup for everything from residential buildings and hospitals to factories and data centers. While essential, they are also a major source of air pollution, spewing out fine particulate matter (PM2.5), or soot, which is a severe health hazard. The traditional approach to this problem has been to simply release it into the atmosphere.

Chakr Innovation, founded by IIT-Delhi alumni Kushagra Srivastava, Arpit Dhupar, and Prateek Sachan, looked at this problem and saw not just waste, but an opportunity. Their core insight was revolutionary: what if pollution wasn't a problem to be disposed of, but a raw material to be harvested?

"We believe the most elegant solution to pollution is to create value from it. Our technology is the first in the world to not just capture emissions, but to upcycle them into something useful." - Kushagra Srivastava, CEO, Chakr Innovation.

How the "Chakr Shield" Works

The company's flagship product, the "Chakr Shield," is a retrofittable device that attaches to the exhaust of a diesel generator. It uses an innovative contraption of heat exchangers and a solvent to capture up to 90% of the particulate matter emissions. This captured soot, a carbon-rich black powder, is then taken to Chakr's facility and put through a proprietary process that purifies it and converts it into a high-grade pigment. This pigment is then used to create "POINK," a line of sustainable black inks.

This creates a powerful circular economy. A factory running a generator with a Chakr Shield can reduce its carbon footprint and then potentially buy back the ink made from its own pollution to print its packaging.

Scaling Impact with Strategic Capital

The $23 million from Iron Pillar and other investors will be used to aggressively scale this impactful model. The key areas of focus will be:

• Expanding Manufacturing: Ramping up production of the Chakr Shield to meet the growing demand from industries facing stricter environmental regulations.
• Deepening R&D: Enhancing the technology to capture other harmful pollutants and adapt it for different emission sources, such as ship engines and industrial chimneys.
• Driving Global Growth: Establishing a presence in international markets where diesel generators are prevalent and environmental regulations are tightening.

Chakr Innovation's success story is a powerful testament to India's ability to create world-class, hardware-based solutions for global challenges. This funding round is not just a vote of confidence in a single company, but in a future where technology can turn the liabilities of industrialization into assets for a cleaner world.