Circolife Raises $4.5 Mn To Scale Subscription-Based Air Conditioning

Climatetech startup Circolife has netted $4.5 Mn (around ₹40.45 Cr) in a pre-Series A round led by Polycab India’s joint MD Bharat Jaisinghani

Cooling as a Service (CaaS) in India is growing significantly as subscription models, where businesses pay per unit of cooling instead of buying expensive equipment upfront, is picking up steam

The startup plans to deploy the fresh capital to expand its AC (air conditioning) fleet, enter new markets, scale its in-house installation and field-service operations, and invest in its IoT and AI capabilities

The round also saw participation from Nazara founder Nitish Mittersain, Intelliquity Ventures, Param Capital, Everest Fleet’s founder Siddharth Ladsariya, Anand Ladsariya of Everest Flavours, Indian Express’ executive director Anant Goenka, Sky Impact Capital, Ideas91’s founder Rohit Dev, and family offices S N Damani and Vyom Wealth, among others.

The Thane-based startup plans to deploy the fresh capital to expand its AC (air conditioning) fleet, enter new markets, scale its in-house installation and field-service operations, and invest in its IoT and AI capabilities.

Founded in 2023 by Abhishek Murarka, Tushar Patil and Devanshu Mishra, Circolife operates a subscription-based model for commercial AC, allowing businesses to use AC units for a monthly fee while the company handles installation, maintenance and eventual refurbishment or replacement.

The startup serves businesses across segments such as restaurants, hotels, gyms, salons and co-living operators. Circolife currently has around 10,000 active subscriptions across five cities. With the fresh capital, it is targeting growing its customer base by 4X over the next two years.

Circolife currently operates two refurbishment facilities in Mumbai and Delhi, where AC units are refurbished and redeployed at the end of their lifecycle.

Circolife’s AC units are connected through an IoT layer that monitors parameters such as temperature, power consumption and gas pressure. The data is used by its predictive-maintenance system to identify potential equipment failures before they result in breakdowns.

The startup is also developing digital twins of individual AC units and, subsequently, entire sites. It aims to use the data generated across its fleet to optimise cooling performance and energy efficiency at the unit and property level.

Cooling as a Service (CaaS) in India is growing significantly as subscription models, where businesses pay per unit of cooling instead of buying expensive equipment upfront, is picking up steam. Businesses increasingly look for alternatives to outright ownership of energy-intensive equipment, while the CaaS model allows service providers to retain ownership of the equipment and manage its lifecycle.

The investment comes amid continued investor interest in India’s climatetech sector across energy, mobility and climate-focused businesses. For instance, Bengaluru-based Newtrace secured $6.3 Mn (₹56.93 Cr) in a Pre-Series A funding round in March, to boost its commercialisation.