Originally reported and written in March 2023, this story has been republished as part of our archival content. 

Last month, Sanjay Maurya and Subham Singh made a memorable appearance on an episode of Shark Tank India, a reality show where aspiring Indian entrepreneurs pitch their business models to a panel of investors in return for investment.

While Sanjay is the founder of Gurugram-based biotechnology startup UBreathe, Subham is the startup’s head of product and innovation. They began by indicating their ages to be 45 and 50 respectively, even though they are barely 30 and 28 years old respectively. This was merely a reference to how high air pollution levels in Indian cities are ageing our lungs at a frightening pace. 

According to the Air Quality Life Index produced by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, air pollution can shorten lives by almost 10 years in Delhi. Unfortunately, this problem has expanded geographically with even states such as Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh seeing people lose an additional two and a half to three years of life expectancy. 

Sanjay and Shubham further explained how existing air purifiers not just fail to address the indoor air quality problem holistically but also have a negative environmental impact.

To address this problem statement, they developed a series of unique ‘plant-based air purifiers’— UBreathe Mini and UBreathe Life for indoors at homes and offices; UBreathe Wall and UBreathe 360 or semi-open areas like metro stations, airports and shopping malls. 

They claim that UBreathe’s air purifiers combine the natural air purifying capabilities of plants with modern technology. Their proprietary design, according to them, “boosts a plant’s natural process of removing pollutants from the air with improved soil breathability.” 

Unlike mechanical purifiers that filter only dust pollution and are highly toxic to the environment, their solution “captures all the contaminants in the air”. Going further, Sanjay and Shubham note that the air purifier technology has been tested and certified by NABL [National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories]-accredited laboratories and has been reviewed and recommended by faculty of All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi. 

After pitching their product to ‘sharks’ (investors), UBreathe secured a deal of Rs 1.5 crore from entrepreneur Namita Thapar. 

Expressing his delight at securing this investment, Sanjay said, “We are truly thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Namita Thapar and to be able to bring UBreathe to a wider audience in India and abroad. Namita’s extensive experience in the........

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