An air-purifier, a fan, and lights—all in one modern chandelier-style appliance! Karban’s bladeless fans, Karban Airzone, with air purification systems offer just that.
Jaipur-based startup Karban Envirotech Pvt Ltd is transforming the consumer appliance market with its bladeless fans that have built-in air purification and lighting systems.
Founded in December 2021, Karban, named after founder Karan Bansal, has designed and manufactured a bladeless ceiling fan with a built-in air purifier and lights. The startup has a unique design that helps reduce electricity consumption and provides multi-utility air flow, air purification, and lighting for homes, offices, hotels, and restaurants, among others.
In October 2021, Bansal left his cushy job at a company that designs computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software in Wisconsin to evaluate the growing air pollution problem back home.
Initially focused on outdoor air pollution solutions, Bansal soon realised the limitations of this approach and shifted his focus to indoor air pollution solutions, coming up with the design of a bladeless ceiling fan. Within 18 months, Bansal and his co-founder Tanya Goyal were ready with the final product and began commercialisation with initial sales to friends, family, and website visitors for testing and feedback collection.
The product, Karban Airzone, integrates multiple functions (air purification, fan, lighting) into one product, aiming to reduce material, energy, and packaging costs of multiple devices.
It addresses indoor air pollution continuously while providing functionality as a fan. The product targets both households and commercial settings, offering safety benefits and space optimisation.
Bladeless fans, though uncommon, are not new. With a mixed-flow impeller or a crossflow blower to draw air from one side and discharge it from the other, the blower’s blades rotate, creating a vortex within itself. This pulls air from one side and expels it from the other, creating a directional airflow system, enclosed within a casing.
“Since we already had airflow coming in and out, creating a low-pressure environment within the product, we strategically added a filter in the inlet space, which is divided into two parts: one part for air intake and the other for the biodegradable filter,” explains Bansal.
The product operates at a lower clean air delivery rate (CADR) and efficiency compared to a regular purifier. “The idea is to maintain the pollution level below a certain threshold over time, rather than rapidly removing it within a short duration, by merging the airflow from the purifier with that of the fan to save energy. This way we don’t need to use a HEPA filter, which is used in a traditional air purifier, to push the entire air volume through it, causing a significant pressure drop. Instead, we use a biodegradable filter to keep both functions running concurrently without using excessive energy for air purification,” elaborates Bansal.
By using CFD software simulations, Karban’s R&D team, which is well-versed in technology along with CAD and industrial design, reduced the design optimisation time compared to traditional methods, where physical prototypes are built and tested iteratively. “CFD software allows us to create a CAD model of the geometry or housing and simulate airflow interactions. By making iterative changes to the design, we can optimise airflow without relying solely on physical prototypes,” he reveals.
Despite all these functionalities, Karban Airzone claims to be an energy-efficient appliance. Each side of the Karban Airzone (each blower) consumes around 28 watts of electricity at the maximum setting. The light operates independently and is a standard LED, providing around 25 watts of power and emitting around 2000 lumens.
The startup sources components from various Indian vendors, with assembly conducted in Karban’s own manufacturing facility, and is currently looking to expand its distributor network. The startup is also seeking potential collaborations with production and sales vendors/partners. The team consists of more than 15 full-time and part-time employees, mainly in engineering, manufacturing, and sales.
With seed funding from CII’s Startup India, the startup has recently raised $1.07 million in a seed round led by Titan Capital, Rainmatter, and All In Capital. Among the other investors in the seed round were JK Family Office and Urban Company’s Anupam Mittal. A few other well-known investors are Sarang Iyengar, Karan Jindal, Atul Gupta, and Abhishek Goyal.
Initially produced with wood due to cost and scalability considerations, Karban plans to develop a plastic version. With all its operations in Jaipur due to lower expenses and favourable sourcing opportunities, Karban remains open to relocating or expanding manufacturing facilities as needed in the future.
