As climate change intensifies and global temperatures continue to rise, the demand for cooling is increasing at an unprecedented pace. While cooling has become indispensable across industries, commercial spaces, and households, conventional air conditioning systems are also among the largest consumers of electricity and contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Addressing this growing challenge requires a fundamental shift in how cooling technologies are designed.

For Sudarsan M S, Co-founder of Albatross Energetics, this challenge became an opportunity to rethink cooling from the ground up. Rather than improving traditional air-conditioning systems incrementally, the startup has developed an innovative liquid desiccant-based cooling technology that significantly reduces energy consumption while lowering environmental impact.

In this conversation with Indian Startup Times, Sudarsan shares the inspiration behind Albatross Energetics, the realities of building a deep-tech hardware startup, the role of ecosystem support, and the company’s roadmap toward transforming industrial cooling worldwide.

Tackling One of the World’s Fastest-Growing Energy Challenges

Cooling has quietly become one of the world’s biggest energy challenges. As temperatures rise and industrial operations expand, the demand for air conditioning continues to surge. However, traditional cooling systems consume enormous amounts of electricity while relying heavily on refrigerants that contribute to global warming.

Sudarsan believes that solving this problem requires more than making existing systems marginally efficient—it requires fundamentally changing how cooling works.

This vision led Albatross Energetics to focus on developing a next-generation cooling technology capable of delivering significant energy savings while reducing carbon emissions. Their approach is centered on eliminating unnecessary energy losses that have long been accepted as part of conventional cooling systems.

Reinventing Air Conditioning with Liquid Desiccant Technology

Unlike conventional air conditioners that cool air excessively to remove moisture before reheating it, Albatross Energetics uses liquid desiccants to remove humidity directly from the air.

By separating humidity control from temperature control, the technology avoids unnecessary overcooling, resulting in substantial reductions in electricity consumption.

This innovation is particularly valuable for industries where maintaining precise humidity and temperature is critical. Manufacturing facilities, clean rooms, pharmaceuticals, electronics, food processing, and several other industrial sectors require strict environmental control, making energy-efficient cooling both an operational necessity and a commercial advantage.

Instead of simply offering another air-conditioning system, Albatross aims to provide a smarter and more sustainable cooling solution built specifically for energy-intensive industrial environments.

Building Deep-Tech Hardware: Where Science Meets Engineering

Developing breakthrough hardware technologies is significantly different from building software products.

Sudarsan explains that deep-tech product development demands excellence in both scientific research and engineering execution. While theoretical models may demonstrate promising results, converting those concepts into reliable, deployable products requires years of experimentation, redesign, and validation.

He credits the company’s engineering team, particularly his co-founder Srihari B and their Research Lead Harish S, for continuously refining the technology through multiple iterations.

Every prototype generated new learnings that helped improve system performance, reliability, and manufacturability. This persistent cycle of testing and improvement ultimately enabled the company to transform laboratory research into a commercially viable solution.

From Laboratory Prototype to Industrial Deployment

The journey from research to commercialization involved several important milestones.

The company initially focused on developing theoretical models before building benchtop prototypes to validate the technology. Once the scientific foundation was established, the next challenge was engineering a field-deployable product capable of operating in real industrial environments.

One of the most significant breakthroughs came during the development of a three-ton cooling system, where the team successfully reduced the system’s size by nearly five times without compromising performance. This advancement made the technology considerably more practical for commercial deployment.

The startup later secured support through the Facility for Low Carbon Technology Deployment, enabling the deployment of a larger seven-and-a-half-ton industrial system that underwent third-party validation, strengthening customer confidence in the technology’s performance.

Designed for Diverse Industrial Applications

Industrial cooling requirements vary widely across sectors.

Some industries require extremely low humidity levels, while others prioritize precise temperature control to maintain product quality, manufacturing consistency, or regulatory compliance.

Recognizing this diversity, Albatross Energetics designed its technology to operate efficiently across a broad range of temperature and humidity conditions.

Rather than developing industry-specific products from scratch, the platform can be customized to address different operational requirements, allowing the company to serve multiple industrial verticals while maintaining a scalable technology foundation.

Delivering Measurable Business and Sustainability Benefits

For industrial customers, adopting a new technology requires clear evidence of both financial and operational value.

Sudarsan emphasizes that measurable outcomes remain central to Albatross Energetics’ commercialization strategy. Through third-party validations and paid pilot projects, the company demonstrates quantifiable reductions in electricity consumption, operating costs, and carbon emissions.

For facilities such as clean rooms, where cooling represents a significant portion of operational expenditure, even moderate efficiency improvements translate into substantial long-term savings.

Beyond reducing electricity usage, the technology also minimizes the environmental impact associated with conventional refrigerants, enabling companies to advance their sustainability goals while improving profitability.

Ecosystem Support Accelerated Commercialization

Like many deep-tech startups, Albatross Energetics benefited significantly from India’s growing innovation ecosystem.

Sudarsan acknowledges the important role played by incubators such as SINE IIT Bombay and Social Alpha, along with various government-backed innovation programs.

These organizations provided early-stage funding, technical infrastructure, mentorship, and commercialization support that allowed the company to progress from academic research to deployable technology.

This early backing not only accelerated product development but also helped build credibility among investors and industrial customers, eventually paving the way for larger institutional funding.

Pre-Series A Funding to Scale Manufacturing and Deployment

Recently, Albatross Energetics raised its Pre-Series A funding round led by Transition VC, validating both the company’s technology and the growing market demand for sustainable industrial cooling.

The investment will primarily support the establishment of pilot-scale manufacturing capabilities for core components while expanding customer deployments across industrial sectors.

Over the next eighteen months, the company intends to focus on commercial installations throughout India, strengthening customer validation while building manufacturing readiness for larger-scale deployment.

Looking Beyond India

While industrial cooling remains the immediate focus, Sudarsan envisions significantly broader applications for the technology.

Alongside continued research and development, Albatross Energetics plans to adapt its platform for commercial buildings and additional cooling applications beyond heavy industry.

As the technology matures, the company also intends to enter international markets where energy-efficient cooling solutions are becoming increasingly important due to rising temperatures, stricter sustainability regulations, and escalating energy costs.

The long-term ambition is to position Albatross Energetics as a global climate-tech company delivering sustainable cooling solutions across multiple sectors.

Patience and Resilience Define the Deep-Tech Journey

Reflecting on his entrepreneurial journey, Sudarsan believes deep-tech founders must embrace patience and resilience above all else.

Unlike software startups that can iterate rapidly, scientific innovation often demands years of research, repeated experimentation, engineering refinement, and continuous validation before reaching commercial success.

Failures are inevitable throughout this process, but each iteration moves the technology closer to market readiness.

For aspiring entrepreneurs building climate-tech and deep-tech ventures, he encourages staying committed to the long-term vision, trusting the scientific process, and remaining resilient through every challenge.

Building the Future of Sustainable Cooling

As industries worldwide search for solutions that balance productivity with sustainability, cooling technologies will play an increasingly critical role in reducing global energy consumption.

By combining scientific innovation with practical engineering, Albatross Energetics is demonstrating that industrial cooling can become dramatically more efficient without compromising performance.

With validated technology, growing customer traction, strong ecosystem support, and fresh capital to accelerate commercialization, the startup is positioning itself to become a significant player in the future of sustainable cooling—helping industries lower both their operating costs and their environmental footprint.

Interview By: Arushi Agarwal