Our country has made big plans for a sustainable future. The country is on track to achieve net zero emissions by 2070. There is also a growing demand for electric vehicles. As India is one of the top five most polluted cities in the world, the country's fight against air pollution is very serious. What's even more alarming is that 83 of the 99 cities that were found to have the worst air pollution globally last year were from India.

Despite all efforts to curb air pollution, the traditional brick industry has long been one of the leading causes of air pollution. Reports suggest that 300 billion bricks are produced annually in South Asia, 75 per cent of which are manufactured in India. This high production level not only increases the consumption of coal, but also significantly raises CO2 emissions. The problems caused by traditional clay brick construction are many. This not only leads to higher fossil fuel consumption but also causes pollution of air, water and land. Although there have been discussions and various attempts to make brick production more sustainable, including the growing popularity of fly ash bricks, many of these methods are still not completely sustainable.

Angirus, an Udaipur-based start-up, is sustaining the construction sector with eco-friendly bricks made of non-recyclable waste materials, including plastic, in the face of the growing challenge of environmental degradation, including plastic. Founded in 2020, the startup uses its patented technology to turn non-recyclable waste materials into functional and environmentally friendly building materials such as bricks and paver blocks. The startup has so far received over Rs 80 lakh in grants and awards from various organisations, including IIT Madras, Pernod Ricard India Foundation and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Angiras has so far raised Rs 36 lakh in equity from IIM Ahmedabad Ventures and a few angel investors.

The beginning of Angris

Although Angirus was founded in October 2020, in 2019, cofounder and CEO Kunjpreet Arora started the journey of the startup while studying civil engineering from Rajasthan Technical University. Arora, who grew up in Udaipur, was distressed to see plastic waste littered in the city. Though the government tried its best to spread awareness, Arora realised that it was not enough. As a civil engineering student, Arora began researching whether single-use plastics could be upcycled to make bricks for construction.
Around the same time, Lokesh Puri Goswami, co-founder and CTO of Angiras, was working on a marble slurry project.

During this time, the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the world. This period proved to be beneficial for the co-founders, and they continued to research to understand the potential of its upcoming products. In 2021, Angiras signed a memorandum of understanding with a local municipal corporation in Udaipur, which had a manufacturing and recycling plant under its jurisdiction. The Angers plant began to be used to recycle construction and demolition mixtures into recycled aggregates for use in concrete and recycled bricks. Soon, the cofounders began to build their own machine. It was a machine that could use various recycled waste to make bricks.

By the end of 2023, the startup launched with a few pilots with local contractors and manufacturers. It was from here that Angiras started receiving orders. At present, the pilot facility in Udaipur has a capacity to manufacture 12,000 bricks per month. Currently, the founders are in talks with some of the top builders and architects in Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Indore, Srinagar and some areas of Rajasthan. Angirus has already bagged orders worth Rs 50 lakh.