Ecozen Solutions

 
Improving livelihoods of farmers who lack access to electricity and cold storage.

 
Headquarters Nagpur, Micro Cold Storage
India
Micro-Cold Storage is a solar powered cold storage device that will be
E s t a b l i s h e d Oct 2010 set up in regions with poor access to cold storages and electricity. The
Impact areas Uttar product will allow farmers the flexibility to store their produce and sell it
Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra in the market when prices increase. This will reduce wastage, increase
margins for farmers, and further stabilize the supply chain, while
T y p e For-Profit
preventing gluts.    
S e c t o r s Energy and
agriculture
TARGET MARKET
S t a f f s i z e 4 employees
Out of the 55 million horticulture farmers in India, 23 million face
Major Funders scarcity of storage facilities for their crops, pointing to a deficit of 36
Indian Institute of Technology, million tons of cold storage capacity in the country. . Out of this, 5.8
Kharagpur million farmers are in regions that lack electricity. There is an annual
wastage of $12 billion in the country due to lack of post-harvest
management infrastructure.

Key Awards
Jan 2012: Winner,
Technology & Sustainable
Development Award – IIT
Bombay
Oct 2012: Winner, Economic
Times – The Power of Ideas
November 2012: Winner –
Dow’s Sustainability
Innovation Student
Challenge, California Institute
of Technology, Pasadena,
CA.
Promoters
Devendra Gupta
Prateek Singhal
Vivek Pandey
Contact
deven@ecozensolutions.com
www.ecozensolutions.com
+91-9970158106, +91-
9096908415
At this stage, we plan to target farmers engaged in horticulture and
have land holdings of 2-3 hectares – an immediate target market of
1.54 million farmers.
After completing our pilots in Bihar and UP, we also plan to target the
farmer-producer companies and village entrepreneurs, who will plug
gaps in the supply chain and help us to expand our potential target
market.
VALUE PROPOSITION
For a farmer in an un-electrified area with poor access to cold storage,
the product will help enhance margins by the following:
-­‐ increasing shelf life of crops, allowing farmers to sell them over a
period of time as prices increase
-­‐ reducing crop wastage
TEAM
The team has strong technical and domain expertise in the field of solar
and thermal engineering and has been doing renewable energy
implementations for the past three years, giving them good insights into
the market and business model. The team has B. Tech degrees from
IIT Kharagpur and is mentored by domain experts in agriculture and
post-harvest management and technology, and professors.

Villgro’s SEED is a partner of:

 
 Ecozen Solutions
 
Improving livelihoods of farmers who lack access to electricity and cold storage.

Milestones Achieved
THE PRODUCT
Raised INR 14 lakhs through awards  
till date.

Raised an additional 15 lakhs INR

financing from IIT Kharagpur SIZE
3.5* MT, 5 MT, 10
MT
Field Study 5MT- 8 ft x 8ftx 8ft

o Interacted with 120 farmers, 70 CROP

village entrepreneurs and 45 Potato, Tomato,
cold chain players in the pilot Cauliflower, Litchi,
regions Carrots (for pilot
phase)

o 18 crops (fruits and vegetables) 0.5 ton pre-cooling

analyzed chamber for Litchi

o 5 states, 12 districts covered

o Secured pilot customers

• Unique thermal storage back-up system
Growth Plan
• Standalone, Efficient, Modular
FY 2013-14: Secure seed funding and • Controlled Atmosphere for selected crops
test 4 sample products in the states of
Uttar Pradesh &Bihar.

FY 2014-15:Raise next round of INVESTMENT REQUIRED

financing and do 15 set-ups in target
regions.
FY 2015-16: Scale up to more regions
and cover more crops.
Investment in the form of grant/equity/convertible debt funding totaling to INR
40 lakhs.
PARTNERSHIPS REQUIRED
We are actively working with NGOs and organizations working at the village level
in agriculture in the various regions where we intend to operate. We are in the
process of identifying the distribution chain in our pilot target markets.

TESTIMONIAL

“Thank you very much for your valuable inputs on solar powered
cold storage. It is the need of the day, especially for the farming
community. As I told you, farmers are desperately looking for such a
viable alternate energy source for storing their produce.” - V.K.V
RAVICHANDRAN, Farmer, Nanilam, Ph- 09443683724.  
 
 
Villgro’s SEED is a partner of: