Magneto CleanTech Success Story: India's Best Air Sanitization Solution!

Jeenal Jain

Oct 17, 2021 — 9 min read

Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Magneto CleanTech.

Magneto CleanTech's flagship product is the Magneto Central Air Cleaner (MCAC)— a high-efficiency ISO-certified air purification solution that not just absorbs all kinds of viruses (including SARS-Cov-2 where coronavirus belongs) and bacteria from the air, but also destroys them ensuring no further proliferation. Magneto solutions provide a 99% elimination of viruses and bacteria from any indoor environment including residential, commercial, or industrial applications.

Founded by Himanshu and Bhanu Agarwal in 2017, Magneto claims brands like Apple, Google, Nokia, Uber, Taj Group of hotels among others as its clients. The entire team at Magneto holds a vision to make clean air accessible to everyone. Let's see how Magneto CleanTech is going to make that happen!

StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Himanshu Agarwal (Founder & CEO, Magneto CleanTech) to get insights on the startup story and growth hacks of the company. In this article you'll discover how Magneto started, its business model, how Magneto works, funding, growth, future plans, and more.

Magneto - Company Highlights

Startup Name	Magneto CleanTech
Founders	Himanshu Agarwal (CEO), Bhanu Agarwal
Headquarters	New Delhi
Industry	Cleantech
Website	magneto.in

Magneto CleanTech - About and Vision

Magneto CleanTech is India's 1st and only provider of an entire range of certified and patented air sanitization solutions that can eliminate all kinds of viruses (including SARS-Cov-2 where coronavirus belongs), microbes, and pollutants from the indoor air. Magneto solutions provide a 99% elimination of viruses and bacteria from any indoor environment including residential, commercial, or industrial applications.

It provides design, engineer, and manufacture central air-purification and air sanitization solutions powered by advanced technologies that destroy nanoscopic microbes and pollutants, including PM 2.5, PM 1.0, bacteria, and even viruses from the indoor air. Magneto's chief product is the Magneto Central Air Cleaner (MCAC), a high-efficiency ISO certified air purification solution that not just absorbs all kinds of viruses and bacteria from the air, but also destroys them ensuring no further proliferation.

Magneto’s vision is to make clean air accessible to everyone, whether in homes, offices, or buildings. Magneto drives innovation built on strong research fundamentals while ensuring that its products adhere to rigorous standards of safety and quality. Through a deep understanding of the needs of a developing economy and collaboration with researchers across the world, Magneto delivers products that solve customer problems in a data-driven way, making clean air quantified and visible.

Magneto CleanTech - Industry Details

Any air-conditioned indoor space is a potential customer for Magneto CleanTech including homes, commercial spaces such as malls, movie theatres, residential complexes, hotels, hospitals, schools, restaurants, fitness centers, etc. It caters to residential, commercial, and industrial spaces. The products have been adopted by some of the largest brands in India such as Google, Apple, Uber, BMW, Airbus, Nokia, Jindal Group, Taj Hotels, Oberois, PGI Chandigarh Hospital, Godrej Properties, and DLF, to name a few.

The Indian air purification market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 27% in the next five years. While the current penetration of air purifiers on average is less than 5% in India, the potential of business growth looks a lot higher than projected. Given the current dynamics, different segments will grow disproportionately as far as air purification is concerned. For example, the healthcare and hospitality industries might become the early adopters of high-efficiency air sanitization technology, while residential applications will grow a little later. Magneto has enjoyed a CAGR of over 60% in the last three years.

How Magneto CleanTech Started

Starting in early 2013, Himanshu recognized the growing need for improved air quality in India and began investing in the research and development of IAQ solutions. After numerous cycles of product development, the founders were able to conceive a product line specifically designed for the Indian environmental conditions in collaboration with international, core-technology providers, making it available at a price point that is viable for developing countries like India for mass adoption. This led to the birth of Magneto Cleantech in 2018. Recently, the company has seen tremendous growth in this segment and has gained great market traction.

Magneto CleanTech - Product & How it Works

Magneto CleanTech's flagship product is the Magneto Central Air Cleaner (MCAC)— a high-efficiency ISO-certified air purification solution that not just absorbs all kinds of viruses and bacteria from the air, but also destroys them ensuring no further proliferation. Its patented ‘Trap and Kill’ technology is Magneto's key strength and it follows a three-fold process. Magneto Central Air Cleaner works on a three-stage process. Unlike traditional air filtration, MCAC kills trapped microorganisms instead of letting them grow:

Impingement: Particles up to 10 microns in size are trapped.
Polarisation: All particulate matter and microorganisms, including viruses, when passed through this layer get charged and start getting coagulated.
Agglomeration: All the charged particles are trapped. The viruses and bacteria are killed and only pure and sanitized air is delivered back.

Magneto CleanTech - Founders and Team

Himanshu Agarwal and Bhanu Agarwal are the founders of Magneto CleanTech.

Headquartered in Delhi, Magneto has over 60 employees now. Its production unit is also based in Delhi. While a startup, the work culture at Magneto is more of an enterprise because it is committed to providing the best value to its customers in terms of not just product, but also service and customer care. The startup is constantly hiring professionals across business segments including engineering, sales, marketing, etc. People with an HVAC background who understand the technology and can serve its customers well are key.

Magneto CleanTech - Business Model & Revenue Model

Magneto’s direct business model has been focusing on the commercial air purification segment so far. Its product design, manufacturing, and installation have been in-house. Some of the largest brands in India have installed Magneto air purification solutions integrated with their central air-conditioning systems.

The company has started developing a dealer network across India only since last year (2020). Magneto is committed to providing complete support to its channel partners, and the startup expects that part of the business to grow in double digits YoY. The partner network is mainly focused on the consumer market for its Split and Cassette AC solutions.

Magneto CleanTech - Launch & Marketing Strategy

Magneto CleanTech was founded based on over 30-years of combined experience of the founders and key stakeholders. They already had a very strong network in the industry, which is where the company started from. Magneto started marketing its products commercially only in 2019 to expand across verticals and geographies.

Making clean air visible was a core part of its marketing and product strategy. Magneto initially started with an air purification product line, but quickly realized the importance of having air quality monitoring in its portfolio. By offering visibly clean air, the startup was able to give customers confidence in its systems in real-time applications. This became a critical piece of Magneto CleanTech's marketing strategy, and the entire industry followed suit soon after.

Magneto CleanTech - Challenges Faced

One of the biggest challenges was finding a technology that could work in heavy air pollution settings of India with a low operating cost.

When Magneto first entered the market, a big customer pain point was that the traditional media filter-based purification solutions had a high recurring cost, requiring filter replacement every 3 months in the heavy pollution load of metro cities. Devising a solution that could be reused without any consumables, drove the team to research alternative forms of air purification. Additionally, they recognized that in the context of India, airborne infectious diseases were already a big epidemic, especially with Tuberculosis. This drove the team to research technologies that holistically cleaned air, beyond just PM 2.5 and PM 10 to eliminate microbial contaminants as well. They spent over 5 years working and prototyping with different technologies that could satisfy these considerations before the team landed on the Magneto Central Air Cleaner product.

Magneto CleanTech - Growth

Magneto has provided its marque solutions to some of the largest brands across industries in India including Apple, Google, Nokia, Uber, Taj Group of hotels, PGI Hospital, Chandigarh, Medanta hospital, IFCCO, RBI, Raheja, Godrej housing, to name a few.

Its vision, however, is to make clean air accessible to everyone. The team understands the unique challenges posed in India and looks to invent solutions that will improve human lives across the nation and the world. In the next couple of years, Magneto will focus on residential applications like Split & Cassette ACs and is planning to expand the dealer network to reach mass consumers across India.

Magneto CleanTech - Funding

Magneto CleanTech is a bootstrapped startup. As stated by the founder of Magneto, Mr. Himanshu Agarwal, the startup has over $1.6 Mn poured in.

Magneto CleanTech - Advisors/Mentors

Mentor: Arun Seth, Chairman, NASSCOM Foundation

Magneto CleanTech - Competitor

Magneto CleanTech considers Honeywell as its major competitor.

Magneto CleanTech - Recognition & Achievements

CBRE Nasscom Finalist - 2018
CII, GreenPro - 2018
iNFHRA Clean Air Award Winner - 2020
Royal Academy of Engineering, UK with IIT-M, Queen's University UK, Grant Winner - 2021

Magneto CleanTech - Future Plans

Magneto CleanTech is committed to its vision of providing clean and safe air to every individual in developing countries like India. For this, it will continue to invest in R&D and develop products for larger applications, including industrial (manufacturing plants, energy sites, warehouses, etc.), transport (railways, bus, airways, cars), and also enterprise solutions with independent equipment that can cover larger non-air-conditioned areas for places like schools, hostels, old age homes, animal shelters, etc.

Magneto CleanTech - FAQs

What is Magneto CleanTech?

How is Magneto CleanTech different?

The patented ‘Trap and Kill’ technology is Magneto's key strength and it follows a three-fold process. Magneto Central Air Cleaner works on a three-stage process. Unlike traditional air filtration, MCAC kills trapped microorganisms instead of letting them grow.

Is Magneto an Indian Startup?

Yes. Magneto is an Indian Startup headquartered in New Delhi.

Who is the founder of Magneto?

Magneto CleanTech was founded in 2017 by Himanshu Agarwal and Bhanu Agarwal.

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