“For the past one-and-a-half years, we have been working on a prototype, trying to develop a product that we can get into the market. With the funding, we will be able to go faster,” says Pranay Luniya, one of the founders of a deep tech engineering startup, Quintrans.
The other founders are Kartik Kulkarni, Aniruddha Atigre, and Prasanna Kadambi.
Quintrans has raised a pre-seed funding round of $750K. The investment comes from Capital-A, an early-stage venture capital fund interested in manufacturing, deep tech, and climate, and organisations such as SanchiConnect — a platform that supports startups in navigating critical activities.
For a group run by four engineers who graduated less than five years ago, this is oxygen. “It feels like the validation of a dream. Till now, it was just our team of nine people working on a product that we were selling to customers. When someone as significant as Capital-A comes in with the investment, it increases your confidence. Your vision is given a boost,” says Luniya.
Following a dream
Quintrans was founded in 2021, but it was really born much earlier in conversations between the group who studied at Maharashtra Institute of Technology World Peace University (MIT-WPU), Pune. They had been a research team for building a Hyperloop by pushing the limits of magnetic propulsion. After graduating, Kulkarni, Atigre, and Kadambi, who were living in a rental hostel, would talk about the possibilities of creating a company to build “India’s most advanced and indigenously developed linear electromagnetic systems.”
Quintrans’ offering is a “Made-in-India, direct-drive linear motion systems for industrial automation, robotics, and equipment manufacturing”. “The rotary motors that you have in your vehicles, fans, and washing machines move in a circular motion. We are creating similar systems, but they are linear in nature, moving to and fro,” says Luniya.
He adds that linear motors convert electric energy directly into kinetic energy using the principles of electromagnetism without relying on mechanical conversion motors, thus minimising friction and the cost of electricity and retaining energy at a very high efficiency. “This improves the output or efficiency of industries and machinery, among others,” says Luniya.
Miles to Go
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The linear motor market is $75 billion dollars globally. In India, it is roughly $5 billion dollars and growing at a 10 per cent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR).
“As industries are growing, manufacturing and automation are becoming one of the hottest topics. The linear motor market will also increase as this is a critical component in the manufacturing book,” says Luniya. Some of the money that has been raised will go to R&D, business development, and team expansion. The company is hiring and is expected to have a staff strength of 15 by January. ”We can target newer industries, newer verticals,” says Luniya.
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