Nirvana Being, a New Delhi-based startup in the health and wellness space, was founded by Jai Dhar Gupta. The company raises awareness on air pollution and also presents various protective solutions and products that can help purify the micro environment, both indoor and outdoor.
The idea struck Gupta when he was training for a marathon in 2014. During preparations in New Delhi’s morning air, he caught a severe lung infection. Through a chance conversation with a diplomat, he learnt about air pollution and its health effects, and aimed to find safe solutions. This is how Nirvana Being was born. Another reason behind Nirvana Being’s conception is that, Gupta wanted to put an end to his son’s asthma attacks owing to New Delhi’s polluted environment.
Nirvana Being has a two-fold growth strategy.
Growing the product portfolio
The company offers enterprise solutions and consumer products related to air pollution, in addition to responding to opportunities by adding further value to the well-being of the masses. It plans to extend its product range to water and food pollution.
Geographic expansion of markets beyond Delhi-NCR
Gupta wants to actively address air pollution issues in other Indian cities, where awareness is low and environmental conditions are getting worse every day. Nirvana Being’s western India office is set to open in Mumbai soon, with another office opening in Kathmandu, Nepal this year.
Technical solution design
Nirvana Being conducts an assessment of indoor areas, to design and implement a customised solution that is optimal for the client. It treats the air at the source by retrofitting the existing HVAC infrastructure with Honeywell electronic air cleaners or Healthway disinfectant filtration system. The former uses MERV 14-rated filter-less technology that has a significantly lower pressure drop than existing media filters. Hence, there is increase in cooling and reduction in energy costs, in addition to air purification. The second achieves medical-grade air purification with MERV 20-rated filter.
Apart from delivering ASHRAE standards of indoor air quality, Nirvana Being installs Sense Edge air quality monitors that relay air quality information in real time to a dashboard and to smartphones.
Business success
Nirvana Being has been in business since 2015, and has achieved a phenomenal growth rate of 250 per cent to 300 per cent year on year. Backed by strong equity and debt funding, the company claims to be profitable from the very beginning.
A challenge that Nirvana Being faces is raising awareness across the country on the impact of existing environmental conditions. Only when people are conscious of this, will the much-needed change precipitate. Only then will the solutions and products create value in the lives of the people and the society as a whole.
Regarding sales, the challenge has been in getting people to understand the need and importance of these products in their routine lives. People in India believe in many myths related to the use of products meant to protect them from air pollution. For example, some think that using these products will lower their immunity levels. Also, people still believe air pollution to be a seasonal problem and are not willing to look at its long-term harmful impact.
